29 Jan 2023 · 7 min
Thomas Anglero got sick and slowed down, discovering that intentionally doing nothing cuts stress and cortisol levels while bringing clarity to what actually matters. Rest, he found, isn't laziness. It's how you get effective.
Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero. Bit sick today, so I apologize for my voice, but it hasn't stopped me from reflecting on something significant that I know will help your life because it's helped mine. And what that is, is that with all the things that we have to do, With all the responsibilities we have— emails, SMS, text messages, kids, husbands, wives, phone calls, timelines— so many things happening in this world. We wonder, how can we get ahead? How can we prioritize? How can we make significant improvements in our lives? And I, like you, struggle with this all the time. And the other day, because I got sick, I slowed it down and I realized sometimes when you're in the middle of all this day-to-day traffic, let's call it that, all this day-to-day stuff that keeps you so busy that actually increases your cortisol levels in your blood, which is not healthy at all to have increased all the time, your stress levels maxing out all day long. That sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. Let me explain. I, like you, are trying to get everything done. So many things, multitasking, so many thoughts in my mind. Just everything is racing through my head. Attending meetings, attending this, doing that, always busy doing something. And then because I got sick, I couldn't attend anything, I couldn't do anything. Matter of fact, I tried to sit on my PC and my back started hurting so much that I had to lay down. It was as if my spine could not support my weight, so I had to lay down in the middle of the day and I passed out for hours, slept for hours. Was sick, it's what happens. But in that moment of tranquility, in that moment of where I gave in to the fact that I cannot do anything now, that I needed to rest, I needed to do nothing, and I mentally told myself, "I'm just gonna do nothing. I can't, I can't, I can't do anymore." I didn't lay back and go, "Let me lay down and think." I lay down and gave into the moment, and I did nothing. Shut the mind off, gave in the fact that I'm sick, and slept. I didn't sleep for minutes, I slept for hours in the middle of the day. Does not happen. And when I woke up in the evening, I slept so much. When I woke up in the evening I had clarity on one thing that had been bothering me so much. Now, I did not think about that while I was sleeping, but because I shut down, because I let go of all the pressure I put on myself and all the pressure society has on me and all the timelines and everything, and I did nothing, things became really clear. Not just on that one thing, that one epiphany I had, and it was a huge epiphany that I think will not just help this year, but help the rest of my life. Something became very clear, but everything, many things became so much clearer. My priority list became clear. How I was gonna handle things became clear. Sometimes the best thing to do to accomplish the most things to accomplish the most important things, to accomplish things on time. The best thing to do is literally to do nothing. We're too stressed out. You're too stressed out. You're doing too much. You're thinking about too many things at the same time. Do nothing. Sometimes, not all the time though. If you do nothing all the time and you accomplish nothing, you really stress out. But give yourself a break. Give yourself some love. It's because if something is vibrating all the time, if you hear the same song, same music all the time, you miss the nuances of the music. You miss the beauty of each tone. So that if you don't listen to music at all, And then you hear it again, then you hear the beauty. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's necessary to walk away from the music, to walk away from your life, to walk away from your responsibilities, to walk away from everything you're doing and do nothing. Don't let any thoughts creep into your mind. Do nothing. And then once you've reached that point of where you are in mental and intellectual bliss, you'll see what you have to do, how you have to do it, when you have to do it. It'll be so clear. This is not the first time this happened to me, but it is the most recent. And it reminded me, sometimes the best love I can give myself is to do nothing. It's interesting. Go forth and spread beauty and light by loving yourself more, by giving yourself a break. By being there for yourself. By doing nothing. I think I've said it enough, I think. I'm Thomas Anglero. I'm gonna go back to laying down on my sofa and just embrace the fact that, hey, there's nothing I can do. I'm not feeling all that great. But that doesn't mean that I'm not just gonna keep on conquering life. This doesn't mean I'm stopping life. It just means I'm giving into life. And at the end, I and you will have a beautiful life. Until the next time.
