Downtime and The Art of Doing Nothing

“I like that too,” said Christopher Robin, “but what I like doing best is Nothing.”
“How do you do Nothing?” asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.
“Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going of to do it, What are you going to do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh nothing, and then you go and do it.”
“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.
“This is the sort of thing that we’re doing right now.”

A.A. Milne “The House at Pooh Corner”, Chapter X

Downtime. It’s healthy for all of us. It’s essential for the Aspie.

The world can be a minefield to our senses. With a constant bombardment of noise and a continual stream of visual stimuli, it’s hard to escape the hectic and chaotic environment in which we live in. The world keeps moving faster and faster, the pace becomes ever frantic, and the expectation is that we’ll go for the ride, when all we want to do is to stop and catch our breath. We become dizzy and lose our sense of balance in the world.

Without quiet, without stillness, we cannot regain our equilibrium. Solitude is not isolation. Alone is not lonely. Downtime is that vital key that keeps us at peace, that allows us to cope.

So in case you don’t know, if I ever appear to be doing nothing, I am. And that’s something.

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