What is a waste of time anyway?

So, I just did my challenge of sitting (actually laying) in silence with no distractions for 10 minutes. That was as dreadful as I predicted…the entire time! Unlike my silent walk, this just felt like a pure waste of 10 good minutes that I could be using for something else. I have to get ready for my next patients (I’m a clinical psychologist by the way), I need to dry my hair after my shower, and I really need to get dinner going. Instead, I just laid there for 10 minutes watching the clock and thinking about what I was going to write in this blog post. So yes, I’d say that was a waste of time.

I guess that leads to the larger question of what is and isn’t a waste of time. Going on the walk without my phone the other day brought up the thought of wasting time, but in the end I don’t think it was. I noticed new things in my neighborhood and did feel a sense of calm and presence. Meditation, also, does not seem like a waste of time. What I just did, on the other hand, was just focus on my very boring thoughts and engage in all sorts of negative self-talk about how ridiculous this was. I’ll call that a fail. But hey, it’s all trial and error I suppose.

Tomorrow, I’m going to try the meditation route. Not for 10 minutes – my brain can’t handle that yet. It sounds like a short amount of time, but it sure didn’t feel like it. So tomorrow, 3 minutes of meditation. Let’s see how that compares to today. Oh also, just to stay accountable and fully transparent, I did check Facebook a couple times this week. Only on my computer and only because we’re looking for babysitters. It did not feel instant gratification-y at all so I’m putting it into the “okay” category. Hope you’d agree!