Brother Sister Whatever
A comedy podcast about siblings, family chaos, emotional spirals, and oversharing gone wild.
Hosted by real-life siblings Lisa and Josh, Brother Sister Whatever is your bi-weekly dose of hilarious banter, hot takes, nostalgic throwbacks, and unfiltered real talk.
Each episode features fan-favorite segments like Weekly What If, the This or That Showdown, and our signature mix of sibling battles and brutally honest conversations.
From childhood memories and awkward adulting moments to regret confessions and love/hate debates—nothing’s off-limits here.
New episodes drop every other Thursday on Spotify and everywhere you listen to podcasts.
Real Talk. Zero Chill.
Brother Sister Whatever
No Chill #16: The Radical Act of Doing Nothing
We explore the powerful concept of doing absolutely nothing—and why that might be the most revolutionary act of self-care in a world obsessed with hustle. From battling the guilt that creeps in when we rest to carving out sacred spaces for flop-mode living, this episode is all about embracing stillness.
Featuring:
• A “Would You Survive?” scenario: 8 hours in a silent room with only your thoughts
• Why rest feels wrong even when we’re running on empty
• How parenthood (especially motherhood) complicates the idea of doing nothing
• Creating sacred spaces in your home for relaxation and reset
• The mental gymnastics of justifying rest to ourselves
• How our relationship with rest changes as we grow
• A chaotic showdown of rest preferences: accidental naps vs. intentional ones, silence vs. background noise, and more
Thanks for hanging out with us on Brother Sister Whatever!
If this episode made you laugh, cringe, or question your life choices—subscribe and leave us a review. It helps more people find the show.
Keep the chaos going:
YT | IG | FB: @BrotherSisterWhatever
Email: realtalkzerochill@gmail.com
New episodes every other Thursday.
Bring your feelings. We’ll bring ours.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to Brother, sister, whatever where real talk meets zero chill. I'm Lisa.
Speaker 2:I'm Josh. How's it going?
Speaker 1:So today we're talking about doing absolutely nothing, and why that might be the most powerful thing to do. Hmm. I know right, Crazy yeah. In a world that we live in, doing absolutely nothing seems kind of strange.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, but let's start with our weekly. What if?
Speaker 2:Yes. What if you had to sit in a room with nothing but a chair for eight hours? No phone, no music, no distractions, just you and your thoughts? Who cracks first? What weird thoughts show up?
Speaker 1:That gives me like padded room vibes, you know, like in one of those asylums. You know, oh man, there's something about that. That kind of feels really like nice. Yeah, Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:feels really like nice yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? Like really, oh okay, like almost like I could breathe a sigh of relief and just like be, I think I don't. I'll be honest, though Like I don't know, like nothing, Like not even like birds chirping kind of shit, I don't know. It seems a lot. I don't know if I'd be able to do a whole eight hours.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess technically it's kind of like a jail cell, right?
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I'm saying. Like it's giving, like.
Speaker 2:So you don't really have anything to do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and no phone, no music TVs, don't they?
Speaker 2:Or books.
Speaker 1:Something yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it would be nice to experience that once.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or it doesn't have to be in that context, right, Like, in that sense I mean, it could be like what? Like camping is technically not far from that, right, yeah, I mean, yeah, okay, you can do stuff, right, it's not. Well, no, I'm not, we're not even saying that you can't do stuff, you just, you know, there's nothing.
Speaker 1:Well, that's like you can't, there's nothing to do, yeah, but like you can still move around or like pace. Oh yeah, you can exercise. Right, I guess right, so yeah. I don't know I do some jumping jacks, Right, I guess. Right, yeah, I don't know. I think it would be nice to experience once. I don't think it would be something that I would be able to, first of all would be able to do all the time but also if it's something that I would really need or want to do all the time.
Speaker 1:And for like a full eight hours. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah without doom scrolling. Without without doom scrolling, there's like nothing, right? So I would, I would uh be okay with one time to try it out, just to see. You know it'd be, it'd be funny to to, to see what you would come out of it with, like, what revelations about yourself, what thoughts like, because you do, you have nothing else to do but think it's true in some scenarios it might not be the best thing.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you might not want to think be thinking too much you know, you sparked something too.
Speaker 2:I remember there was, uh, I forget who said it, though, but there, you know, there's a certain hour, right um? Like a witching hour no, but there's a certain hour, right Like a witching hour. No, but there's a certain hour like if you go past that all of a sudden your mind like turns inwards.
Speaker 2:You know, like, like you, you start just thinking about other things, I guess. But it's all like from within, it's like a meditation, you know. So it's like after like the 13th hours or something like that. You know, all of a sudden, like you have like this enlightenment in the sense of like you know what you're thinking about or not thinking about. Yeah, kind of thing, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that's kind of cool. That sounds like something I'd be into.
Speaker 2:Maybe the eight hours could do us some good yeah exactly, exactly Challenge.
Speaker 1:Challenge yeah, oh man, okay, so I think that's it for the weekly. Did you even answer no?
Speaker 2:I didn't.
Speaker 1:I think I hijacked that one, so go.
Speaker 2:No, I mean yeah, I would do it. I think I would be okay with it. Yeah. Honestly, I do, I do, I think, I think I'm getting more into that. I mean, maybe not in a jail cell, but like I'm getting much more into like, just like you know, my own thoughts. I have a little incenses now and I light them, and you know so.
Speaker 1:You kill me. Yeah yeah, all right. Okay, so that's it for the Weekly. What If? Here's a question for you, josh? Oh boy okay, why does nothing feel wrong, even when it's exactly what we need?
Speaker 2:Why does nothing feel wrong? Yeah, what do you mean?
Speaker 1:Perfect example. I feel the need. There's always something to do around the house, right, but does it need to get done that minute? Like, let's say, you're just you're tired and you just want to chill, but you've got, you know, laundry, dishes and whatever to do. Does it have to be done that very second? Why not just give yourself even 10 minutes of nothing to just recoup and regenerate as much as you can with 10 minutes? Why does it feel so wrong? Why are we not allowing ourselves to just do that, to just do nothing?
Speaker 2:I think it's just how we're built. Some people do do nothing. You know there are lots of people who do that I mean.
Speaker 1:So when you say just how we're built, you mean us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:As opposed to a society.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean Okay, Well, yeah, because I think I mean come on, I think everyone knows.
Speaker 1:Well, certainly better at it than others, that's for sure. Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think and you know we all have our moments, Like I won't say that I never take those 10 minutes right, like I do here and there, but yeah, for the most part it's like it's not necessarily the norm, maybe. No, it's definitely not the norm.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's just how we're wired, I guess. Yeah. We need to make sure that it's all done, because we know that it's going to compound with interest.
Speaker 1:That's good, yes, it's true. Well, here's the thing that I'm learning about myself lately, going through this whole kind kind of exploring who I am again yeah I've realized that I never let myself rest, and when I do, it's with strings.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? Like, when I do a lot when I have allowed myself to rest, it's because I was so rock bottom Like I, literally my body, couldn't physically move anymore, kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? Like you can't give yourself enough oomph to even move off a sofa or get out of bed or whatever, right? Yeah, those moments Luckily those moments don't come too often right when, like, I'm struggling to get out of bed every day but that feeling that I have of just like never listening to my body, my needs, you know, and and giving myself something I feel like I feel like it's it's really important to Like, it's really important to start to listen to what your body and what your mind needs. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You may not be able to do it all the time, but at least, like I was actually ignoring those signs, that voice Do you know?
Speaker 2:what I mean. I think it's a lot harder for you for women, especially moms. Do you know what I mean? I think it's a lot harder for you for women, especially moms, you know, like women who have children, because I feel like you know, not that I think it's okay, but it's, you know. It's as if when you become a mom at least from what I've seen you become a mom and it's like you don't matter anymore in your own mind, like you don't matter. So how you feel doesn't fucking matter, how you know what you need what you need like it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:So I think that women take this ultimate sacrifice when they have kids and they're totally just at their mercy, so to speak, and only later again, just speaking from you know, only later they're kind of like, no, you know, like I need to, I need to think about me a little bit. Right, like, you know the cliche airplane thing, right, the fucking mask falls. And you know the the cliche airplane thing, right, the fucking mask falls. And you know you do it first, and then you, you know, you help the kids or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, so you know, I think I think that that's a little bit a part of, maybe, why you feel like that.
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe I will say hands down, absolutely, of course. There are times, you know, I don't even think about eating breakfast until I've gotten to work, because in the morning I'm X.
Speaker 1:Y Z getting them ready. Let's just, you know, make sure they're good to go, and then I think about what I need. So, yeah, I totally understand that. I also do think that there are a lot of moms out there that are able to kind of maybe for lack of a better word compartmentalize that a little bit better and have things that bring them joy and that refill their cup kind of thing and that, like you know, refill their cup kind of thing. So I think for myself, it really is also a big part of my personality right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm really learning in the last couple of months I've been doing so much work to just really stop, just stop and listen to myself a little bit more, that's awesome by no means perfect addict but I've gotten a lot better at saying, like you know what I don't need to get done right now, I'm good with this, or I need to just lay in bed for an hour and look out the window and not do anything. You know, done that. So, yeah, I think I think there's like a lot to be said for doing nothing you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I agree totally yeah, but what about you?
Speaker 1:in the sense of do you feel ever feel guilty, like when you do choose to rest or do nothing?
Speaker 2:yeah, I definitely feel guilty yeah.
Speaker 1:Why, though, where does your guilt come from?
Speaker 2:I think my guilt comes from. I feel like it's expected of me to never rest, so I always have to be doing something, and if I'm not, I'm lazy. You know, or like, what are you doing? Why are you just sitting there? Or like, how dare you go on the computer, you know, or like, so, like, and I feel it Like. I feel it Like, for example, if I go on the computer and I barely play games okay, just to give you like my thought process, I barely play games and like I get a text from like an old friend, let's say. He's like hey, like you know, remember when we played League of Legends, blah, blah, blah. Like why don't you know we jump on? We have like one. I'm like okay, fine, I'll play one hour you know what one game. And I get on and in that time frame someone calls me or they open the door, you know, and I'm there and the game is on, and it's like as if I you've been there for eight hours no, but as if I, I, I, I did something, you know.
Speaker 2:I look back and I'm like, oh, fuck you. You know, I'm like yeah, and and, and it's like blah, blah, blah, and I'm like okay, okay, you know, and I'm like, oh, so what? You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:That that, um, you're lazy, you're whatever, like you were saying. That's from you, that's your voice saying it to you, it's not external forces. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2:I think it's a little bit of both, because I think it's me, yeah, and then the perception around you my, my pickings. You know where. I need to have people who are going to feed that problem instead of the opposite.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I chose people in my life who would be like why are you being such a lazy ass? You know what are you doing, sitting there for five minutes.
Speaker 1:So you picked motivators in your life to get you to where you wanted to go.
Speaker 2:In ways.
Speaker 1:But the flip side of it is that when you do feel the need to do nothing or rest, you're fucked. It's like why aren't you doing something to progress you even further, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:That's it. So you know, all all the work I've been doing on myself for the past year, I've been learning just that, which is, um, that inner peace and and and to to honestly do nothing, and how powerful it is to do nothing, and um, uh, it's, it's, you know it's, it's, it's been life changing, but it's not easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not easy.
Speaker 1:So I guess we could agree then that no matter man, woman, children, no children, the external forces around us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think are a big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a, there's a base and then everything like I don't know how it was for you, but like I was totally different with my first born compared to my second and, like you know, in the, in the senses of I yeah, it's fine, we have a little bit of time, you know versus yeah, it's fine, we have a little bit of time. Versus like the first was like what do you mean? You know, like we have to get this ready and just in case, and oh my gosh. So I feel like yes, but also there is experience in there that you know, like look at a first time mom oh, of course, forget about mom First time couple. First time couple like with their first kid, and first time couple, sorry, and a couple with, like you know, it's their sixth kid, right, oh man.
Speaker 1:The dynamic is so different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one, like the kid, falls over. They're like, yeah, whatever you know. And they're like, oh my gosh, oh, oh no, you know, it's like Lion King, you know, like you know, they're so freaking out, like you know. And the people with the sticks, you know, they're like yeah, yeah, it's fine, it's a little bit of dirt, kids got a hard head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a little bit of dirt never killed anybody, I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, all right. So how about this? Okay, what object in your house is sacred to your flop lifestyle? Couch a hoodie, I don't know. Corner of the floor.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh A burrito blanket. Okay, so it's like a twofer, but it's like in one. I have my nook. Okay, like the special area of the sofa. That's the best right.
Speaker 2:And no one can take that spot when you're.
Speaker 1:Oh fuck, no, Trust me, the kids know They'll be like oh, mom's in the nook, so the nook, and with that also goes my nice big cozy blanket.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That is like my spot. I feel like, even with the TV on or whatever, like I, just I feel like cozy and at peace in that little spot. I know I don't know why it sounds so silly, but it doesn't sound silly at all, actually. Yeah Sounds pretty normal. That's, that's, that's mine. What about you?
Speaker 2:Now, yeah, I would say now it's my office because I've created like such a peaceful space in there.
Speaker 1:Now, you know, I have my little incense and I have like all my little stuff and I go in there and I just kind of relax and I think or not think and I just kind of relax and I think or not think so, do you ever mentally like defend your rest time, like your flop time, like explain it to yourself or others, like do you ever feel like you have to mentally defend that?
Speaker 2:In the past, yeah, but now not so much, not so much. It's a tough question actually. No, yeah, no, not so much anymore. I think that no, to answer the question, yes, there's been many times where I had to kind of like mentally defend, like why I want to take a break or sit down or whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm allowed to sit and relax.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're almost trying to convince whatever I'm allowed to sit and relax, yeah, and you're almost trying to convince yourself. Almost yes, very much so it's like almost like your brain is kind of like what are you doing? And you're like look, I deserve this. And you're like having this conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chanting affirmations to yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, yeah, I do too. Like I said, I still. I actually have gotten better at it in the last few months. I'm like, okay, you know what. I don't actually need to defend this, even to myself. I'm allowed to.
Speaker 2:Well, without getting too personal, we've technically both been working on ourselves these past little while, you know, since we started the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and before, and before in different ways, but I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so it's good.
Speaker 1:I know it's really nice. I finally feel like I'm living life as opposed to just in it. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it actually makes a lot of sense because that's exactly how I feel. I feel like even though it still might not even be evident to me I noticed that there's like big changes, you know, and and they're, they're creeping. You know that the changes are creeping just in the way I think the way I feel who I choose to talk to now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, All of it is different and it's weird, you know, because it feels like a whole new life, right, like because all those things mentally are changing. So obviously the people you talk to are entirely different than what what they were before or what you thought of them before. Yeah, yeah so it's, it's pretty cool yeah, it's really, it's really nice so how about we get into our this and that showdown?
Speaker 1:let's go, brother, you start all right.
Speaker 2:So intentional nap or accidental nap?
Speaker 1:oh both. Both are nice, but intentional, I will. I will pick intentional okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good yeah yeah, yeah, um pajamas all day or change into lounge clothes lounge clothes yeah, more of a lounge clothes same um although, although I have sundays, are my pajama all day days I don't have pajamas okay, so like for me lounge is like usually, I'll wear sweatpants, which I wear sweatpants quite often.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And like a hoodie.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:That's like my jam.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know Cold drink on the couch or warm drink in bed.
Speaker 1:I'm not a fan of warm drinks. I know that sounds silly. You're like everybody is gasping on the other side fan of warm drinks. I know that sounds silly, you're like everybody is gasping on the other side. But like, unless it's like Christmasy winter weather and you're purposefully with the family having hot chocolate with Milchmallows and it's like it's like an event at our house, like the hot chocolate thing, like the gourmet hot chocolate balls that you dip in and have to wait, you know all that shit. So, and that's only like to me in my mind, very specific times. I'm a huge ice coffee fan, so for me it's more the ice drink and couch bed outdoors, indoors doesn't really matter, so I'll take cold drink on the sofa.
Speaker 2:That's what it was right.
Speaker 1:Cold drink on the sofa.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will take that Long-winded explanation to get to that answer. But that's my answer.
Speaker 2:Nice. What about you? I don't care Okay. I do both. Snacks within reach or full fasting flop. What do you mean? Full fasting flop? Like don't eat anything. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm just because of my mindset right now, I'm going to go with the fasting flop. Really. Yeah, I don't eat snacks right now, so You're good, I've gotten back into the snacks.
Speaker 1:I was better and now I'm worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I know I will when I finish my competition. That's true, yeah, yeah, I'm not moving flop, or I'll slowly migrate around the house, flop.
Speaker 1:Right now it's I'm not moving flop. Okay, how about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah me too. Probably flop. Okay, how about you? Yeah me too.
Speaker 1:probably yeah same. How about this? A morning rest or an evening rest?
Speaker 2:I mean I go to bed at eight.
Speaker 1:But are you resting in the morning too?
Speaker 2:A little yeah here and there. It depends. You know like where I'm at client-wise. No, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say evening rest, the wind down from the day after the kids are in bed, and you're just like yeah, yeah, I don't remember what those are like Because you go to bed so early. Yeah, you go to bed before they do so. For you, it would definitely be morning rest, because you get up before them, don't you?
Speaker 2:I'm up at around 3.30.
Speaker 1:There you go, you're up way before them 3.30,.
Speaker 2:You know I slept in today though, because I went to bed late, but normally yeah. Yeah, all right, background TV you've seen 1,000 times or complete silence.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the background TV is the naturescapes on YouTube. You know where they go through.
Speaker 2:All those I'll take that over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:No, it's Cocomelon Okay.
Speaker 2:So then silence.
Speaker 1:All right, One more. Each Josh cancelled plans or ghosting responsibilities.
Speaker 2:Ghosting responsibilities. Yeah, oh, my gosh. All right, let me think here. Oh, overthink everything while doing nothing, or mentally peace out oh, I've done both.
Speaker 1:I think mentally peace out okay yeah same. Yeah, yeah, yeah all right, that was a fun one.
Speaker 2:That was a good one, that was great.
Speaker 1:Let's do a regret of the week before we peace out on this episode. Is there anything from this week that you wished you could change or take back?
Speaker 2:I really try not to have regrets. I know you mentioned that in the regret episode.
Speaker 1:So, this one's going to be a little tough for me, but I guess if I have to pick something, I wish that I didn't. You know, I regret eating that extra slice of pizza on the weekend. Yeah, my regret is that I didn't find it in me to start gardening in the beautiful weather.
Speaker 2:Plenty of time for that, don't stress Plenty of time when we had it. But yeah, don't worry, we're going to get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll get there. Doing nothing doesn't mean you're wasting time. It means you're letting yourself breathe.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Hands down.
Speaker 2:Hands down.
Speaker 1:And that's it for this episode. So thanks for tuning in to Brother, Sister, Whatever, and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 2:And remember please start following us. Yes, I know Instagram, what we're on YouTube, facebook, facebook, follow us. Come on, we want to hear about your situation, and so on. Okay, all right, bye, bye.
