There’s a phrase used in the practice of medicine known as “a tincture of time.” This refers to the intervention of no intervention, when the safest and potentially most effective prescription is to give the body time to heal itself.

The body has an innate miraculous ability to maintain homeostasis and to reestablish homeostasis after it’s become imbalanced. But if we act too quickly to take control and attempt to fix the imbalance, whatever it may be, whether it be physical or psychological, we interfere with this natural ability. And when we interfere over and over, the body may give up, or even forget, its harmony finding function.

When we exert the will to do nothing, the will to take the prescription of a tincture of time, we may leave enough space for the body to remember its natural talent and work its self-healing miracle once again. This is the sort of will I describe in my recent book (The Will to Do Nothing). This sort of nothing is anything but passive or lazy. It takes great courage. It takes faith that I will still survive if I let go of immediate control. It takes trust in something bigger than my idea of me.

I’ve created a short animated video to illustrate the premise of The Will to Do Nothing through the analogy of waves and the ocean. When you feel a wave of discomfort, of pain, of anger, of sadness, of anxiety, of any feeling you don’t want to feel — first, do nothing. Lean into the wave. Let it crash over and run through you. Only then, stand on the other side in the open clear sky of Right Now. I’ve included a few sample frames of the video below, and click the following link to watch the video in full:
VIEW THE FULL VIDEO ON INSTAGRAM HERE

IF YOU’D LIKE TO HELP:
If you already have the book
and would like to support its growth,
you could write a review here,
follow the book’s life on Instagram here,
or simply share it with others in your life.
Thank you!