The Real Wealth of Retirement (Hint: It’s Not Financial)

Times have changed. Six months ago, ten minutes of sitting still felt impossible, I got restless very easily. Since retiring, I can happily sit in the sunroom for an hour simply watching the clouds float by. I actually find it very therapeutic. It reminds me of my ten-year-old self, drifting off watching clouds from the classroom window instead of doing my work.

I keep coming back to this topic. Having time that's truly mine has changed something fundamental in me. Somewhere between those daydreaming school days and starting work, I seemed to have misplaced the ability to just...be, I suppose is the correct word.

The work-a-day world, with its pressures and deadlines, had quietly shut down that part of me, the part that could just sit and watch clouds without needing a reason. Retirement, by removing the external pressure, has simply allowed that innate, childlike capacity for wonder and ease to resurface.

I wonder if everyone rediscovers this easily, or if some people fight it, maybe that old work-world guilt makes doing nothing feel wrong, even when you've earned the right to do it. I suppose the world of work taught me that being busy was good, stillness not so much.

I personally find it wonderful. I used to meditate a few days a week to clear my mind. I don't feel the need anymore. My rediscovered ability to simply spend time doing essentially nothing has filled that need, I guess it's a form of meditation without the focus or mantra.

This ability to do nothing and feel no guilt in doing nothing is, paradoxically, a springboard toward productivity and mental insight. Writing articles only seems to happen after periods of sunroom mindfulness. At other times I find it impossible to think of anything to say. And any problems I might have seem to find solutions during these quiet periods.

My time in the sunroom has drawn back a curtain and revealed a paradox: it seems the most effective way I can be productive is during periods of deep, guilt-free unproductivity. It's the antithesis of what I formerly believed. True breakthroughs require the quiet processing time that simply watching a cloud provides. If you want to solve a tough problem or find a fresh thought, don't press harder, step away and do nothing.

Without conscious effort, I've reclaimed the part of my mind the working world had quietly shut down. The true gift of my retirement isn't freedom from work, but the freedom to remember who I was before the world told me who I had to be, that ten-year-old gazing out the window, whose peaceful, non-productive contemplation was, in fact, laying the mental groundwork for an entire lifetime of insight. By honoring that stillness, I've not just retired, I've found my way back to clarity.

I find the irony of the situation delightfully amusing. If you're reading this flow of words and thoughts, it's strange to think that it's a product of doing absolutely nothing. Try figuring that truth out with corporate efficiency and logic..

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