Nothing

Last weekend I went to the mall and did the Nothing Project. I stood at the overhang where you can look down to the floor below you, and let go of my thoughts. It was somewhat hard to stop distracting yourself, as every fleeting thought you get distracts you and compounds into more thoughts. I spent a couple minutes training myself to think only of what I thought while observing, and not to let those base thoughts transform into a long distraction. It took some time, but eventually I was able to do nothing.

I spent most of my time doing nothing looking down at the people below me. They were all going through their daily routine. It hit me that I am not the only person. It was interesting to see all the people. They go about their own lives, completely independent from me, except for this one brief fleeting moment when our paths intersect. What are their lives like? What do they think? What are their aspirations? I felt like an outsider. As everyone was walking around interacting, here I was standing still, an observer. I also learned and interesting lesson on how busy other people are. Although I never moved my body in 10 minutes, not a one person, and I saw many people pass by me multiple times, asked what I was doing, or even paid me notice. It just goes to show how busy people are in life, and how this constant thought and action distracts them from the small things.