Picture this: You’ve had a long day at work and looking forward to a relaxing evening. You start streaming an episode of your favorite series. Two hours later you’re still there, and now you’re frustrated that you didn’t use that time more effectively. It’s not that you wanted to do work tasks or take care of personal stuff... you just wanted more out of that precious time that would renew your body, mind, and soul.

I love it when I hear or read something that challenges my current perspective. A few weeks ago I was truly shaken when James Clear, in his powerful book, Atomic Habits, wrote:

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

In our activity-obsessed culture, the idea of doing nothing is not considered a positive thing to do. Oh we talk about relaxing and disengaging, but even those moments of idleness are incessantly interrupted by the ding, chirp, or ring of an electronic device. The tide is changing, however, and there is now mounting evidence that we need these moments of what I call "sacred idleness. Forbes had an excellent article on the subject just a few months ago.  I've taught the general benefits of taking an "intermission" in my work life balance training for several years, and am always looking for more neurologically-based facts to support the value of doing nothing.