Recently when I was taking one of my awesome walks, I had a thought that went something like, "This is a waste of time, I should be working on X, Y and Z." This isn't the first time I've had such a thought. Sometimes it's when I'm lounging around having a TV marathon on the weekend. Sometimes it's when I'm below a mountain of bubbles in a hot bath. Sometimes it's when I'm miles away in the mountains taking a drive with my love. All of the times though, it's just my mind being it's logical self.
You should be working on your blog post for next week.
There are groceries to be bought and meals to be prepped.
The house is a mess, you should really be cleaning right now.
And so on.
If I tune back into my body though, my heart, soul and intuition immediately counter with, "There's a point to this pointless activity." And there is.
Whatever pointless things you do in your days or weeks, there's usually a very important point to them... self-care.
1) They refill "the well."
It's important to think of energy, inspiration, creativity and ideas like water to a well. When you go go go, you run the well dry. Suddenly, it becomes harder and harder to show up in your life and work and do what you need to do. You're stagnant, fussy, tired and overwhelmed. Nothing gets done, and the harder you push, the harder it becomes to refill the well. Doing pointless things that bring you joy, fulfillment and energy allow you to refill that well so that you're able to show up and do what you need to do. When your well is full, you're happy, energized, focused, productive, excited, inspired and creative. It's essential to keep your well full... better yet, keep it overflowing so that you're never depleting yourself, you're simply giving from a place of abundant energy, inspiration, ideas, creativity, love and joy.
2) Helps you release and prevent stress.
When I go for walks, take bubble baths, watch my favorite show all day in my PJs or do some other "pointless" activity, it helps me to release any and all stress from the day or week. I relax, take my mind off things (which allows it to better work on the issue at hand), and recoup. I have fun, get fresh air, move my body or let it rest. All of these things are important for releasing stress and keeping yourself in a better frame of mind to prevent future stress from becoming overwhelm and burnout.
3) Brings you joy and pleasure.
Joy and pleasure are like air and water, you need them to thrive. These activities may seem selfish, pointless and counterintuitive to getting things done, but they're incredibly essential. If you want to be more productive, check things off your to do list and be of service to others, you have to make joy and pleasure priorities. The only way to give your best to anything or anyone else is to do things that make you feel great.
4) Opens your heart and mind.
Most "pointless" activities allow you to stop thinking so much. When you're not worried about work, to dos or other obligations, you mind is able to relax. When your mind's relaxed, you open up. You become more receptive to divine downloads, strengthen your ability to hear your intuition and are overwhelmed with clarity, ideas and inspiration. When I go for walks outside or a drive in the mountains, I almost always return with new ideas, divine downloads in the form of blogs, poetry and talks, and inspiration to create something amazing. If I didn't make time for these pointless activities, I can't imagine how I'd create anything of value in this world.
Are you doing enough "pointless" activities?
Tell me, where could you be doing more pointless activities that focus on self-care? How can you relax more, remove stress and open up your heart and mind for inspiration, creativity and divine downloads? What's something you'll do today?
Stephenie Zamora is the founder of www.stepheniezamora.com, a full-service, life-purpose development, design and branding boutique. Here she merges the worlds of personal development and branding to help young women build passion-based businesses. Click here to download her free guide, "The Unexpected Trick to Transforming Your Life With ONE Single Question."
For more by Stephenie Zamora, click here.