Phoebe Buffay and Niksen
There was an episode of Friends were Phoebe tries to do a selfless good deed. In other words, do something for someone else and get nothing out of it––not even a good feeling of helping someone else.
That episode is the only thing I could think of when I read about the Dutch practice of niksen. It means doing “nothing”:
Practicing niksen could be as simple as just hanging around, looking at your surroundings or listening to music — “as long as it’s without purpose,” she says, and not done in order to achieve something or be productive.
But… can we actually do nothing? I mean, aren’t we trying to achieve relaxation with this? I feel very productive from doing “nothing,” such as sitting on the beach and watching the ocean, because I walk away feeling more creative and calm. In fact, the whole point of niksen is to exit your time in niksen feeling different from when you entered. Isn’t that the definition of productive––producing good feelings? For it to be truly nothing, a person would need to exit the activity feeling exactly the same.
Oh Phoebe Buffay, you were on to something…
5 comments
I do niksen at work all the time.
😉
I remember and love that episode of Friends!
I have not heard of “niksen” but have been making an effort to do nothing on occasion on the weekends, as I feel I am a little burned out from the pace of my life and need to rest. I generally am able to resist the urge to get things done around the house, but have a harder time resisting the urge to read. (Does reading qualify as doing nothing? I think not.)
But I think your point is slightly different, which is that doing nothing is doing something, i.e., resting. True.
I’m really depressed that by doing nothing you are trying to be productively relaxing. Rather than simply allowing yourself to do nothing, because you don’t feel like doing anything else.
What a great episode! I, too, remember it on occasion.
I’ll admit that I put “meditate” on my ToDo list. Which is antithetical to “being instead of doing.”
I guess even nothing is something. Does this mean there is nothing that is nothing?
I have been doing niks often lately. You might say I have been lanterfanteren….. It is so strange to read this dutch word in an english words. I think niksen is very similar to the attitude of a 15 year old in the pre internet era. it is being comfortably bored. it is not so much a concept you strive too it just happens…. I can tthink of acouple of words that mean something very similar..