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Spend More Time Doing Absolutely Nothing to Achieve Happiness

Updated
2016-03-26 14:35:51
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Happiness For Dummies
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Happiness For Dummies
Explore Book
Subscribe on Perlego

Some people simply can’t comprehend the psychological benefit that comes from doing absolutely nothing, but it can make you a happier person. When you think of nothing, this means nothing that’s productive, that is, in a material or tangible sense like building things or making money. On the other hand, when you do nothing, you produce a state of relaxation. Funny how that works!

Here are some tips on how to spend more time doing nothing:

  • Rent a dozen of your favorite movies and spend the entire weekend watching them. Your kids will love you!

  • Get up on Saturday morning and head out for the day without any particular agenda or destination. If something along the road to nowhere catches your eye, stop.

  • Waste some time at a flea market. Browse, don’t buy.

  • When you have an unexpected snow day and can’t go anywhere, make sure you don’t get dressed, don’t work, and don’t do any chores. Think of the day as a gift!

  • Spend the whole day reading your favorite novel — lose yourself in the author’s world.

  • Plan a weekend so that when you go to work on Monday morning and people ask you what you did, you can say, with a smile on your face, “Absolutely nothing!”

  • Lose your watch. It’s much easier to do nothing if you don’t know what time it is.

About This Article

This article is from the book: 

About the book author:

W. Doyle Gentry, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, a distinguished Fellow in the American Psychological Association, and the Founding Editor of the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.