Our minds are like web browsers. We’ve got tabs with all the different things we need to do today open all over the place. When we walk into our job, we bring up the correct window, with all the tabs loaded so we can get to work immediately.

Sometimes we can have an item or two failing to load. Maybe we closed something and forgot to bookmark it for our life. Maybe, just maybe, we never opened it up at all.

Then there’s the sidebar. The shunting-place, the forgotten repository of all the things that we just haven’t bothered to do anything with. The side bar is often our history or our bookmarks – the things that we haven’t come back to, or the things we haven’t truly dealt with.

Many people try to delete their history, but there is always someone out there who knows what you’ve been up to. The past can never be erased, no matter how much we try.

There are also a lot of people who pile up enormous amounts of bookmarks, so much that they end up culling those numbers just so they can make space for more. Chances are, however, they will never get back to their bookmarks in time to read them.

Our history isn’t something to be deleted, though. No matter how painful or shameful things we’ve done in our past are, they are things to be learned from, so that they won’t be repeated. Sure, I’ve wanted to completely remove some memories from my life many times before, but I know that I wouldn’t be the person I am today without having made mistakes in my past.

Our bookmarks are a problem. We’ve always got so much to do, all the time, that it’s natural that we often forget a few things here and there. There’s always the clutter, though. There are bookmarks that aren’t too important that still take up more space than the ones we truly need. If I read every single article that I came across online, I would have a very dull life. We need that natural filter, to make time for what is valuable and to ignore what is not.

An uncle of mine once said that he doesn’t like saying that he’s busy, because that makes him seem unavailable, as if people can’t ask him to help with things they need done at work or at home. I’m inclined to agree with this sentiment. I am busy, of course, but not so busy that I can’t help a friend, or give a lift for a family member in need.

We’re often so busy looking at how to fill the time we have that we don’t look at using empty for what it is – a moment of stillness. Society has become so obsessed with the need for stimulation, with the need for focus, attention, and entertainment that we are told we should never have a dull moment.

I’m guilty of this. I’m a slight workaholic, constantly searching for something to keep me busy, so much that I hardly sit still. A part of my ‘scheduled time’ though, is to do nothing. Maybe I’ll go to bed a little early, or take the night off, or lie down for a half hour after coming back from work. Sometimes the healthiest, happiest, best thing to do is nothing.

Close the tabs in our mind. Stop processing every little thing we have done, are doing or will do. Sit and simply be, simply enjoy that moment of existence. In that moment, it can feel as though the entire world seems to exist just for you. Understand that in a world that is unceasingly moving, you can choose to be still, to be a rock in the storm.

When we’re always so busy, we forget how to be still. When all the world is tired and exhausted, it’s because we’ve forgotten how to truly rest. I challenge you to take a moment out of your day, out of your busy existence to just… be. Don’t be busy, tired, preoccupied, irate, or stressed. Just be you for a moment. After all, you’ve got everything to gain, so what do you have to lose?