Brighten Your Day

Today a friend sent me a link to DoNothingFor2Minutes with a picture of a beautiful sunset. A little timer on it said, "do nothing for 2 minutes." A few seconds on the automatic timer had already counted down by the time I thought, "I meditate and do qigong so this will be easy."

A peaceful and exquisitely calm feeling came over me as I felt my breathing deepen. Then I thought, "breathing deep is not doing nothing. I wonder if I am supposed to be focusing on my breathing or really doing nothing."

I tried not think and just breath naturally. Since I was sitting with my eyes closed, I started to think, "I wonder how much time has passed. I wonder if a little bell will ring when the two minutes is finished or if I will just open my eyes and it will have finished. Maybe I won't know how long I have been doing nothing."

So I opened my eyes. Just over one minute had passed. I took a few more seconds to appreciate the beauty of the red and gold sunset on the screen.

One minute had already passed, so I had a sense of how long that had taken. I closed my eyes again. Then started to laugh at the crazy thoughts going through my mind. The next time I opened my eyes, the screen said, "well done." Not a voice, just with words on the screen. There was no bell, just a sense from the universe that I had done a good thing.

That was the first time on my iPhone. The volume was down. I didn't hear the sound of the waves below the sunset.

The second time I listened on my computer only I wasn't really going to do it, I just wanted to share it on Facebook. The timer started just the same. When I went to look for the share button the screen flashed me a message, "failed." When I stopped moving the mouse, the timer started again.

Understanding, I meditated for two more minutes, wondering briefly whether the sound of the waves would stop at the end. They didn't. Life goes on but more wonderfully when we stop to look at a sunset or listen to ocean waves. The world seems brighter now. Two minutes can change the quality of your life.