A Challenge -- The Day of Nothing

Description

A challenge for all of you! The "Day of Nothing". Will you take it on?

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Music is "The Woods" by Silent Partner.

Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods

Video Transcription

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hello friends we have a challenge for you today and no kidding it is a big one this is this comes out of something that forest monks get to experience out here a trio of the University and although there's many things to do out here there's also a lot of time where they are just in the state of being not in a state of doing and when they encounter that it can be life-changing the reason being that when we're doing stuff all the time we're pretty distracted right definitely it's hard for us to pay attention to some of this underlying things in our life we could make a division between doing and being doing is what most of us are used to it you know we have goals we reach for those goals we're striving we have our list of things to do today so there's always this directed action also today these days it also incorporates the constant distraction of media and TV and Internet it just keeps our mind always doing stuff what about being right being from what we've heard from our students from what we've experienced ourselves being allows us a breath it's like the space in between notes in music it allows a pause where we can look at our lives where we can just feel we don't even have to spend the time examining we can simply be present and in that space often not always but often great discoveries are made solutions to problems that we've been mulling over for the last few months the last few years our whole life son sometimes sudden they come into clear focus and we've seen that time and time again with students here we value that they say oh my gosh that time that I spent by myself which was sometimes the hardest time oh yeah loneliness and your fears and being with yourself I'll put up a link to where I'm benefits aboard Nvidia yes so those are challenges that sometimes in our modern culture we don't even realize that we need that space or we think yeah I need a break but you just keep going I mean I do that all the time I need to take a moment just to get out for a walk but I have this I have this the list will be never-ending it's up to you to take a little time and that is where our challenge comes in so here's how it works if you want to take it on the the idea is to take an entire day to set it aside it's not engaged in any doing so obviously at first that involves no texts no emails don't turn on the computer no television shows no technology essentially I'm trying to recreate what what the forest monks get to experience out here if you can spending this time in nature if that's not available to you spending it in in a peaceful environment your house or any place you can find at least you know doesn't have a whole bunch of distractions around it so what about things like reading I mean gosh I could use some time for reading or maybe a art project or some gardening those kinds of so those things are kind of on the border but for most of us really trying to not even do those sorts of things you know I can get sucked into a novel or even if it's just reading you know nonfiction I'm trying to learn something I can spend a whole day kind of distracting myself with that learning so it's it's taking out all these things that oh here's what I could fill the time lines goals you know working towards anything in particular sweeping off the deck doing that you know chicken coop project whatever it's gonna be none of that Sun nothing productive just trying to be like sitting on a rock so what might what might we encounter when we do that I mean obviously you mentioned boredom so what's gonna happen usually for a lot of us you know we're gonna find find these places of stillness but as those mentioned that like me sitting on a rock and spending a few hours just listening to the birds might be walking slowly around your your home and observing it like you're seeing it for the first time it might be a long long walk to the woods whatever it is this is almost like a doorway again we can go our whole lives really in that state of doing and distraction you never see that there's there's another world of beingness waiting right beyond that door but because our culture is so designed to give us that constant distraction constantly fill our time we may never experience what's beyond that door and we can't promise that one day is gonna show you what's beyond that door and open up all kinds of new things in your life but it may give you a glimpse

of what is waiting just beyond there and I think that's what we see often with with forest monks here is encounter boredom you counter the mental pain of not having those distractions but just on the other side of that pain just on the other side of that challenge they start to find some amazing things about themselves about the world around them and sometimes insight into just what isn't it in order to live a fulfilling life and it might not always be everything that we think we need we may not need all the stimulation we may not need all that in fact sometimes what we may need are those days of doing nothing it's almost like going on a really good diet and then you realize just what when you eat that junk food again you realize just what that does to your body it does not feel good and so this puts contrast for some of us of us for the first time in our life contrast to that doing this to that distraction that we might find like you're saying that a lot of that distraction that we thought is really important to fill our days with maybe it's not holding quite juiciness and the wonderfulness and importance that we thought it did so I want to say try it one day of doing nothing prepare yourself for it let people know so that you're not having to oh well I had to tack so-and-so because they didn't realize you know set yourself up for it make some meals ahead of time so that you don't necessarily have to suddenly distract yourself with an amazing meal just make it simple so that you can put yourself into some of that uncomfortableness and realize if you do feel the boredom oh my gosh how long is it's gonna be put away your watch put away the clocks don't look at them and notice what happens to time and the strength of your interaction with the world when you don't have time pieces and you don't have things telling wheel where you should be or what you should be doing realize when you get to those places that hardcase you are doing exactly what you need to be doing you're doing some mental push-ups you're strengthening yourself and you're quieting yourself which is such a gap so this is a real life challenge it I realize I mean it's gonna be difficult just to set aside a day because your minds gonna say you can't afford to do that mm-hmm and there's gonna be mental pain during that day but because this is an official challenge in the comments if you take this challenge on tell us what happened tell us about your experience better yet if you have a youtube channel make a video and a response video and post the link in the comments and then share personally with people you want you experienced what was this like did you make it through the day did you only make it 10 minutes what was hardest for you not to engage in it might be something you least expect and I would be very curious to find what happened the next day when you went back into everything again what did you notice yeah so take this challenge on if you feel like you're up to it and please share with us in the comments your experiences

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