Empty space is too valuable to be filled up without good reason
 

Many people are uncomfortable with silence. If speaking stops in a conversation, a meeting, or an interview, they rush to fill the space. Interrogators use this trick to persuade people to say more than they should. Angry spouses use it to ferret out the truth. It’s the same with actions. So many people feel uneasy if they’re not busy all the time. Rather than take a break or simply do nothing, they fill their time with ‘make work’ and things they would be far better off not doing.

Why does this happen? I suspect the main reason is the same as for people’s fear of silence. It gives them more time to reflect and be aware than they can handle. So long as there’s noise and activity, people can be swept along without much thought. When the music stops, there’s just them; alone with whatever thoughts or concerns come to them; alone with who they are and what they’re doing.

Emptiness has enormous value

The emptiness and silence such people find so uncomfortable is actually its main worth. In the quiet, freed from the necessity to do or be anything, you can find space to recall who you are and simply experience the present moment. Emptiness is filled with infinite possibilities. Once you interpose activity, all those options are reduced to one: whatever you are doing to fill the empty time.

In our frantic, hectic, activity-obsessed world, the lack of time and space to reflect and understand accounts for many of the mistakes people make. As they rush from one action to the next, never pausing long enough truly to consider the results beyond the most superficial level, they fill their time at the expense of emptying their minds. There’s thought going on, but it’s confined to conventional anxiety about what to do next. In the hustle and bustle, there’s neither the time nor the inclination to think beyond the next action.

Our need for mindless activity

Much of this hyperactivity stems from anxiety: better to be doing something all the time than allowing yourself to think about your fears and worries. When times are bad, as they are today, people try to find comfort in having many things to do. It sounds harmless, but it can prevent you from ever dealing with those same troubles. Until you slow down, take a careful look at reality and allow yourself time to think clearly, the chances are that you’ll exhaust yourself in continual busyness, all without moving any further towards resolving what is worrying you.

There’s also the fear of looking underemployed. That’s a major concern for many people. If you don’t look as if you have enough—better still, far too much—to do, you may be a candidate for the next round of lay-offs. Poor priorities play a part as well. It’s easy to be busy when you’re constantly behind or catching up with something you’ve only just realized is important. Disorganized people always have lots to do, most of it trivial.

Why it’s important NOT to do things

Speaking just to fill the silence is likely to lead you to say things better left unsaid. Actions taken to seem busy and essential will often lead you into doing things better left undone. Bosses fill vacant time with unnecessary meetings, or by interfering with their subordinates’ work. People make useless calls or collect pointless data. And, just as silence can tempt people to blurt out what they know they shouldn’t say, a gap in the flow of job demands can cause people to do the very things they know they shouldn’t.

Silence and empty space are wonderful gifts, essential to happiness and fulfillment. There’s no need to fill them with anything. That’s why many people find a practice of meditation so helpful. Setting time aside regularly to enter into silence and awareness of the present can be like drinking a glass of deeply healthful and refreshing water: clear, pure, cool and cleansing. You don’t do anything in meditation; that’s the point of it. You just are, whether you follow a tradition that uses specific means to quieten the mind, or simply sit and let your attention focus on the act of sitting or breathing.

Along with many other people, I find my best, most creative thoughts come when I’m doing and thinking nothing definite whatsoever. Like a garden plot, the human mind needs sufficient free space to allow the seeds of creativity to germinate, without them being strangled by all those daily weeds of habit and routine concerns. Your body also needs enough quiet time to rest if you want it to operate at peak levels. Stress doesn’t just come from external events and other people. Much of it is generated internally through constant activity, mental as well as physical.

Most of all, you—the essential, authentic ‘you’ at the core of your being—needs enough unencumbered time and space to be fully yourself and enjoy the world and the one life you have to live. Not doing can be the very best way to spend a significant part of every day. You should never surrender it without at least a spirited fight.

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