Part II: Creative ways to avoid the void

I have always been an avid reader from as far back as I can remember. It was my solace to begin with, as a child I could hide in the magical realms within the pages, as a young adult, I read to accumulate knowledge and some pleasure and now as a bona-fide adult (at least I would like to think I am one) I still read for escape, knowledge and pleasure.  I will read anything for as long as it tickles my mind in some form, I am currently reading a book written by a psychiatrist, more on that later. 

After writing Fear of the void and cultural conditioning it dawned on me that I had now found a new way in which to avoid my own void. The realization is amusing in the sense that I can now observe myself in the third person when I am still enough. Instead of filling up  with mind-numbing activity, I am hiding behind “accumulation of knowledge”. The void in me does not need more knowledge, it is everything and nothing at the same time. But I read book after book endlessly in an effort to block out that “blankness”. Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely fantastic to read but it is also important to be able to identify when you are trading one activity for another. In my case I traded working myself to the bone physically for working myself to the bone mentally. I now take the time to actually do nothing, well that is also wrong. I am engaged in my mind, just not actively using other parts of my body to be very busy. Laying on my mat looking up at the sky and the treetops around me is a good time to do my version of nothing. 

Take care not to fall into the trap of organization, what I mean is do not try to schedule “doing nothing”. The very act of scheduling “nothing time” is paradoxical. We tell ourselves that scheduled nothing time is good for us when in truth we are trading one form of void avoidance for another. The mind is an interesting thing and it will stick to its old patterns right under your very nose. Let your “nothing time” unfold on its own and just roll with it. You could be engaged in the most stimulating conversation/work or whatever it is you enjoy and you are hit by a need to stare at the sky. Don’t fight it, go and stare at the sky. You may walk away from the staring with a profound truth you would have otherwise not had access to.