A traditional Japanese tea room is exceedingly simple, with a bare minimal of decoration, helping the participants of the tea ceremony to focus on just what is at hand. In other words, the room and the ceremony are made to help people just be.

I think there is great value in this being. Lately, I’ve noticed myself getting more and more anxious, more and more worried that certain things wouldn’t go well, that things just weren’t good enough.

I was letting myself forget to appreciate the good that was already in my life; the things that were once a dream that is now a reality and how so much better my life has become.

My mind had wandered off to exist in some faraway place instead of just being in the moment.

I sometimes end up having the attitude that spending time doing absolutely nothing, or doing something just for leisure is a plain waste of time. But I’ve found great things to come out of taking time off to do nothing and be nothing. My mind clears, anxiety lifts and new ideas come.

Is it because the act of taking time off tells your mind that there is always more than enough time? That you are time-rich?

Whatever the case, I will be in a rustic little spot of Thailand come this time tomorrow, for the next few days. I found it thanks to a little online review, and I’m looking forward to the first trip I’m making where I’m going slightly off the beaten track.

See you soon, and I hope you take your time off to just be as well.