On a warm, sunny day in October, I made the trek to my university library. I didn't know what to expect once I got there. Was this going to be a challenge? Would I succeed or would I give up? I pushed open the front doors and entered the lobby. As I sat down at a fairly secluded desk, I remembered what my professor instructed me and my classmates to do:
"Do nothing for 30 minutes," he said.
Receiving an assignment where the objective was to do absolutely nothing was definitely a relief, but also a little bit nerve-wracking. As a college student, I am always doing something. If I am not studying for a class, then I am either socializing, exercising, or sleeping; none of these activities allow me to sit down, take a deep breath, and relax.
During this psychological experiment, it almost felt wrong to just sit there and do nothing, especially while I was in the library surrounded by people struggling on homework assignments and studying with fervor for upcoming exams. I had a slight anxiety of being seen as someone who was crazy or depressed, because the current generation of humans are addicted to some sort of stimulation (the big one obviously being cellular devices).
However, during both attempts (in the library and outside on a bench), I did not check my phone and successfully sat there for the full duration in complete relaxation. Time unexpectedly flew by, and I did not once feel bored like I expected to. I was surprised at how incredibly relaxed I felt, after I got over the fact that people might think I was weird. Consciousness of my thoughts and surroundings tempted me to start writing every last thought down on the paper next to me; my mind and body craved to be productive.
Different visual stimuli awakened memories within me that I probably would not have dwelled on if I had not been carefully observing my environment. I also started to notice things that had been there all along, but I had not noticed them for approximately halfway through the 30-minute timer. In the library, there had been a piece of trash at the corner of the desk I was at and when I noticed it I was actually startled - it seemed to appear out of nowhere! I definitely experienced deeper thoughts outside on the bench than inside the library – I thought about the complexity of nature and how insignificant my embarrassment and troubles were.
Living in a capitalist society definitely has its downsides, and this assignment highlighted the fact that humans value productivity over their own health. Being a student or a member of the workforce is incredibly stressful and demanding, yet we neglect our time to grow intellectually and spiritually because we will be looked down upon by society and our own selves for not being “productive.”
Being outside (without a technological distraction) can be an excellent way to de-stress from long, busy days, and enable us to catch up with our thoughts, feelings, and senses that we have carelessly left behind. We forget to simply live and to be present in our current environment, particularly nature. I believe this is a huge reason why people do not care enough about environmental issues because we have become so disconnected from the physical world around us. Perhaps, in order for people gain an interest in nature and sustainability, we must sit… and do nothing.
