Idle Time

It's the end of the Labor Day Weekend and the end of "idle time" . . . for now.

Idle time is a necessary time not only for rejuvenation, but also for creativity, so says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. (Good book. He’s explaining creativity to me.)

And, I believe it. I certainly have experienced times of clearer understanding and have had flashes of enlightened thinking over creative problems when I have let go and allowed myself to relax. There is nothing that can compare to a “get-a-way” weekend when you can mentally get away, too.

One of my very favorite ways of enjoying idle time is to bathe my mind in the creativity of good music. Around here, jazz fests are popular over Labor Day Weekend. Man, I love sitting in a park with a couple hundred people having a good time watching a bandstand crammed with jazz musicians whose bodies are totally involved with the music they are making. The music is so unifying. We are all one. It glues our souls together.

I believe idle time, when you are fully focused on something other than your project, allows your problem-solving, rational-thinking, critical-analyzing thoughts to rest, to turn off for a while. It’s like in the movies when the story is building and building and then the violins begin to play and everyone relaxes and the scenery becomes greener, the sky bluer, the leading actors become even better looking and you in the audience feel your muscles, that you didn’t even know were tense, begin to relax. Relax and just be. Be there.

Then, pop, poppity pop. New neurons are firing. Or maybe it’s the old ones, but the corrosion cracked off. Whatever. You’ve got a solution or new path to get to a solution and you feel great.

I love idle time. Vital idle time.