The art of doing nothing is a hard skill to master.
This is one woman’s story of learning the importance of downtime and why we need it.
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(Late to the game, I knowbut I was a kid when it came out.)
The scenery, the cuisine, the love story all melted my heart.
He mentions an Italian phrase,dolce far niente, which translates to the sweetness of doing nothing.
Phedra Smith, LMHC, is a Florida-based therapist.
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Phedra Smith, LMHC, is a Florida-based therapist.
Id never found sweetness in doing nothingonly feelings of guilt and shame, which I then associated with laziness.
You havent really earned it, it hisses.
Thats for other people, or so Id always told myself.
Thats for other people, or so Id always told myself.
Easier said than done.
Not having a full agenda made me feel antsy and irritable.
All of those things were enjoyableas long as I was working Monday through Friday.
But once I had more free time, I wasnt interested in doing those leisure activities during the week.
I felt I didnt deserve to do them.
Unfortunately, Im not the only one who tends to feel this way.
Our society often associates rest and moments of stillness with laziness.
Yet Americans are anything but lazy.
These workaholic tendencies are embedded right into our culture.
That stress, in turn, can lead to health issues such as high blood pressure.
Smith believes that this issue is rooted in the American era of slavery.
Rest was frowned upon.
It wasnt a good thing to rest and lay down, she says.
For many Black people, rest can still be risky.
Even today, for many Black people, rest can still be risky.
Consider the proverbial you have to work twice as hard speech so common in Black households.
And perhaps over time, I let myself believe that resting and laziness were closely related.
I spent much of my six-week break examining those beliefs.
Yet in an overreaction, I tried to force myself to keep going until I simply gave up.
Most importantly, my relationship with God kept me centered.
All of these things made me realize that rest isnt weak.
It can be powerful.
The more I allow myself to rest, the more I recognize how much I benefit from doing it.
Am I as comfortable with the concept ofdolce far nienteas the Italian guy inEat, Pray, Love?
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