A psychotherapist's view on 'Doing Less'
We’ve been thinking about what it means to do less - is it about reducing our to-do list, or taking a screen break? Or is it a deeper attitude change?
We asked holistic psychotherapist Kat deVos, who is leading our heart centered retreat this October:
“To me, "doing less" is about how we're structuring our lives and spending our time, as well as how we are relating to the people & things in our lives. It's important to understand that we are actually doing a LOT in those moments of "less". We are creating space for awareness, curiosity, creativity, and digestion of all of the thoughts and information we're absorbing.
The pace of the world has never been faster, and our nervous systems simply have not had the time to evolve at the rate to be able to keep up and metabolize it all.
Can we carve out moments to find our way back to ourselves? To be okay with being bored, or not being "productive"? To wonder without pulling out a phone to Google? If your desire is to move towards doing less, it might also involve some thought conversations with yourself- why are you choosing what you're choosing? What are you willing to give up? Are you trying to negotiate with your vision of doing less in order to avoid the discomfort of making tough changes or running up against hard truths?”
Kat’s 3 pillars of doing less:
Presence: being in an experience and paying attention to that experience without getting pulled into past rumination or future planning/worry
Intentionality: being are deliberate and we can with how we spend our time and our attention
Integrity: moving through life in alignment with our values
how to do less
Identify your core values: For example, if one of your values is creativity, how are you protecting time, resources and a space for this to emerge? What do you need to do LESS of daily to enable that?
Be realistic: doing less doesn't have to mean drastic change. It can happen in the in-between moments, which involves breaking some of the habits and addictions we've formed around "more' and "consumption".
Be prepared for discomfort: In choosing to live with less, we’re also allowing the fear of the unknown to arise, as we are letting go of the exhaustion of being overworked & over-scheduled.
Our Ceremony of Self retreat is designed around the very concept of doing less. On the cusp of Mt Taygetus, we have created a rare container to safely explore stillness and presence without distractions.
Led by holistic psychotherapist Kat deVos, with daily workshops of self-work, lighthearted activities & supportive yoga classes.