Doing Seeks Change; Being Is Inherently Receptive
While it isn’t a conundrum that occupies too many minds, it is a puzzle that has stumped philosophers and psychologists alike: How do we explain the difference between Doing and Being?
Why does this matter?
We are, after all, human beings. But we spend much of our time behaving like human doings.
There is always something in the future to worry about and something from the past we allow to haunt us. There may always be something to fix or make better—or, if there isn’t, we feel a need to find something to improve. It is endless Doing without rest that prevents us from enjoying our natural state of human beingness.
Consider this: Right now, do you enjoy being you, or is there something to take care of before you can enjoy yourself?
It isn’t a personal question. It describes the state of human Doing, and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it. It becomes a problem when we are stuck there. The inability to unglue ourselves from the need to act creates illusions that can very quickly feel real. If we can’t fix it, then we aren’t good enough. If we can’t figure it out, then we aren’t smart enough. If the relationship doesn’t work, then we aren’t lovable enough. And on and on and on.
Being stuck in human-Doing mode reflects negatively on our human beingness. But the judgment isn’t real. It is an illusion designed to keep us Doing.
It is the Being that does. The doer doesn’t exist.
This cycle, which perpetuates our feelings of inadequacy or not-enoughness, is just that: a cycle. It moves in a rhythm that we participate in, but it can appear automatic and therefore overwhelming.
The free campus class Shift Your Inner Dialogue explains the cycle and provides exercises that help interrupt it. With very little effort, a mindful student may be able to pause or stop the cycle, sometimes by the end of the lesson.
The exercises can be practiced without understanding the mechanism behind them. That mechanism is introduced in the Second Semester class EnergyWorks, where Doing and Being are examined in terms of energy and information.
From the perspective of internal body language, when we are Doing, we are sending energy or information away from ourselves. It is active energy moving outward. Humans in a Being state, however, allow energy or information to come in receptively. As experiences, these two states of flow are distinct: one moves outward, and the other comes inward. Yet they are very close, subtle, and easy to overlook.
Talking, which sends sound outward, is a form of Doing. Listening allows sound to come inward and is therefore an expression of Being—when we are actually listening.
Another example is “watching out.”
If we actively look for danger, we are in human-Doing mode. We remain on edge, wondering what we might find. Noticing, on the other hand, is receptive. If we simply notice what is obvious, we can remain relaxed until we actually notice danger.
Pause for a moment and notice the sensations in your body. Being and Doing feel different because they move energy in different directions.
This simple distinction gives rise to a wide range of exercises that can shift us from a Doing state into Being. The shift quiets not only the compulsive need to keep Doing, fixing, measuring, comparing, or improving, but also the accompanying sensations of inability, inadequacy, and other forms of not-enoughness.
In Shift Your Inner Dialogue, one exercise is to stop measuring and comparing, which is a form of Doing. When we stop, we naturally fall into receptive observation without judgment. That alone quiets the chatterbox—a product of Doing—at least for a short time.
Once we begin noticing energetic flows, we can quickly sense whether they arise from Doing or Being and adjust when needed. The power of this training is the ability to notice which mode we are in, such as when we aren’t actually listening or aren’t actually noticing.
Being makes it easy, Doing gets in the way.
When I hear myself wondering what to say next while someone else is talking, I realize that I am not listening. I stop preparing my response and receptively hear what is being said to me.
If I catch myself anxiously looking around, I stop searching and instead notice what is obvious. If nothing is threatening (which is most always), I relax.
Results tell the truth. Get on campus to learn and practice.
If you haven’t yet practiced the exercises in Shift Your Inner Dialogue, visit the campus as a free Visitor and take the class. In half an hour, you may feel significantly better, with a quieter chatterbox and a more honest assessment of your human beingness (which is already whole and beyond any question of enoughness).