Stop “Doing” and Start “Being” – Our Trip To The Desert

So often in our culture we’re on a one track conveyor belt of “doing”. Do you find this to be the case in your life? It’s interesting because you see it everywhere. Commercials are selling us on buying things, our work is encouraging us to learn new things, we have motivational speakers talking to us about how we can change our lives etc.

On every side of our lives there’s this fundamental presupposition that “doing” things is good and noble thing. Nobody wants to be around lazy people who have no goals or aspirations in life do they? I know I don’t…

The issue with this though is that we get caught up with every day things that rob us of “being”. How do you figure you might ask.

When we wake up we might have a morning routine or ritual we do. It could be healthy or not. For most people not switched on to health, it could involve taking a shower, rush eating breakfast or worse yet, grabbing an egg McMuffin at a drive through on the way to the office.

If you’re interested in peak health like we all are, it might involve making a fresh vegetable juice in the morning and doing some rebounding to wake yourself up.

Then you might take the kids to school (which we talked about here) run some errands, go to the grocery store, then do some work, then run around again, pick up the kids from school, then come home to dinner and by the time you know it you have not “me time” or “you time”.

I know our lives are like that. The day is over before we even feel like it ever began. It’s nuts how fast time flies. Perhaps I’ll do a whole series on this subject.

I think it’s best to organize your life so you have the fewest things to do each day. Go to the bank once a week instead of every day (if you can). Buy in bulk so you don’t have to run to the grocery store every single day. Or better yet, grow your own groceries.

There are lots of little strategies we can implement to help free up some time each day to rest and relax. Like I said before I’ll probably devote a whole series to this.

So having said all that, Kate and I went out to the desert here in California and had 3 nights at hotel where we did absolutely NOTHING that was obligatory. We laid in the sun every day, we went into the pool, we played some ping pong when we felt like it, we went for a hike.

Do you know what was so interesting about our entire trip?

The days felt REALLY long. And I loved it.

There’s no doubt that our lives are way too busy. We’re just committed to, too many things each day.

I’m convinced that this creates stress, anxiety and emotions that are bound to have an ill effect on our lives.

Whether you believe that God created us as in the garden of eden or if you believed we evolved from monkeys, either way you slice it, the life we’re living now is not normal. All of this running around and high pressure jobs are killing us.

We need to get back to “being” instead of “doing” no matter what our society says about us. Or at the very least, try to increase the “being” part of your day in small amounts. Try to change your perceptions about what you value.

Accomplishments are great and so are reaching goals, but not at the expense of your health.

What do you think?