Delicious Idleness or Dolce far Niente

At the beginning of last week I went to a too-fast business travel to Italy. And even I had almost no time to think or see anything I remembered that italian saying that goes “Dolce far niente”, translated as the pleasure of doing nothing, but better expressed as “delicious idleness”. It hit me because a few weeks ago, (or maybe just two ) I watched the movie “Eat, Pray , Love” starring Julia Roberts. In that movie they talked about it when in Italy.

That made me think about it and I realised it is an idea I could embrace easily. Why? Well, it seems that nowadays, in order to live, you must be doing something all the time. And if we have nothing to do right now, we check our phone.

I don’t believe in that lifestyle. Why bother trying to get distracted all the time? I believe that when you are busy all the time it’s because you’re trying to avoid doing something else.

How can Delicious Idleness improve our life?

Mindfulness has being gaining popularity. The practice of being present. For me, it’s Delicious Idleness. I’d just love having some time for resting my mind and body while being somewhere I like. Time of my own. It’s not wasted time, in fact is a precious time gained, because it helps me choose what direction to take in life. Usually, I’d be laying under the sun in the garden, hearing the birds, sheep, breeze and random sounds. Or, while surfing, I’d be waiting for the next set of waves, feeling that peaceful state of relax and awareness. That’s even better, because there are those moments when I have to stop thinking, empty my mind and concentrate to catch a wave. 

To somebody else it could be anything else, like driving or cooking or colouring a page or writing about your day…

What brings you a kind of inner peace?