What to do While You're Waiting
now now now now
Short and sweet post this week - I feel like I have so much to read and catch up on all of the time, yet I am always waiting for the next thing. In fact right now I am waiting to know what to write about while I wait to go a gig, where I will wait to play my set. I do think waiting is the hardest part! And maybe why we turn to scrolling. Standing in line, sitting at a doctor’s office, laying in bed… there’s always a space for it. Is it productive? Studies come out saying it ain’t, but what I want to know is WHY do we do it?
I came across this wonderful (and short) bit from Martha Beck this week.
I’ve been a fan of her stuff for a while and she dissects waiting in the most perfect way. She says ‘Waiting is pointless.’ Delaying action until something else happens… (Webster’s Dictionary)
While you are waiting, life has been happening. That something else, takes you out of the moment, the present.
Awareness is interested in the mind itself.
She says ‘if you can watch the ones who are waiting, you get to watch the system of your life play out’ to see what the patterns of waiting are externally.
She suggests we also ‘observe what is happening with ourselves.’ To observe what we are waiting for within ourselves, and have a little conversation with our inner selves to ask, what is going on here?
With these 2 approaches, you can drop back into what’s happening now, and fall into the flow of life.
When it’s too painful, she does a meditation to bring herself back into the present moment, and simply just says ‘now now now now.’
Waiting doesn’t cause anxiety. Anxiety causes waiting. She encourages us to ask, ‘what can I enjoy about the moment?’
Tell me what you think about waiting, especially in the season we are in!
xoxo mp
I think waiting is waiting. Waiting is the result of a myriad of reasons. I think the anxiety of ‘waiting’ is often the result of unrealistic notions. One may wait for a doctor but never think that the ‘waiting’ may be due to an unexpected urgency or even due to a physician taking extra time to answer questions or calming the fears of another patient. I remember going to a small Dutch restaurant on Curaçao and being annoyed that we had to ‘wait’ so long for our dinner. It was delicious though. When we, rather haughtily, decided to give the restaurant a second try, in our oh so, in retrospect, elitist manner I visited the restroom and on my way was able to see into the kitchen. I was humbled and ashamed. This small restaurant was preparing multiple meals on a 6 burner stove and delivering magic. I learned then, sadly so late in my life, that waiting, like all of life, will bring…life. Good, bad, indifferent waiting can often be our lot in life. If I don’t have my Kindle or my husband I observe and wonder.