Stillness in a world going 100 MPH? Sure. Why not? And does the winning lottery ticket come with that too? As unlikely as experiencing stillness may seem, when the profound power of this quiet, humble quality is fully understood, we may feel an urge to begin developing the circumstances and environment to create and experience it. Once known, you'll wonder how you ever did without it! Let's look at four important ways stillness can support, guide and uplift YOU.
#1. Stillness helps us develop a healthy life-balance. The speed of life has a tendency to keep us off balance. A lack of balance makes life seem more confusing, frustrating and often difficult. These feelings keep us in the loop of stress and don't do anything to help us detach from it. Rather, it feels like stress is wrapping its tentacles around us, effectively keeping us from the peace and energy we deeply desire. Using stillness, in the manner of a quiet mind and body present in awareness, returns us to healthy balance. When we work on creating pockets of stillness, we build a better life balance while deepening our bond with stillness. They each enhance one another.
2. Stillness increases the fullness of life experience. This one may surprise you. Using stillness with regularity also amplifies and empowers our moments of activity. This is because coming back to stillness time and time again, we very naturally release churning thought build-up as we steady ourselves in stillness and equilibrium. This is how we train the mind. Connecting with stillness increases our level of presence as well as our ability to be more fully present in our activities. It heightens our focus, our joy, participation and the experience of it. Here, we are no longer connecting through a distracted or stressful mindset.
3. Stillness helps us to know ourselves. Stillness practices help us to increase our ability to listen within. This is an important skill to learn as we tune into our inner wisdom. We can also tune into our bodies to listen and understand them, i.e., through physical pain we may be experiencing. We can also learn to locate our negative feelings/emotions in our bodies to understand where they tend to reside, within stillness. Here, I mean discovering exactly where we experience stressful emotions like sadness, grief or anger, i.e., gut, heart, throat and so on. Cultivating this important power of inner listening, we create a connection that allows us to take the most helpful, compassionate actions to counteract any negative states.
4. Stillness supports the healing process. Last but not least, stillness is an invitation to begin the healing process. We know when in the hospital, we are still, in a bed, and encouraged to rest and sleep. This is simulating an experience of stillness. Once we understand these four deterrents: the toll continuous negative thoughts take on our lives and bodies, the lack of balance so often a part of everyday life, the lack of presence available in our overactive minds, and the inability to listen within, we see what they all have in common. The power to slow down, or block healing of all kinds—mental, emotional, physical, and Spiritual. If we want to live a healthy, sovereign life, we must accept stillness as an experience we literally cannot afford to live without.
Just as we could not possibly be healthy if we only inhaled or if we only exhaled, we must use stillness as the balance to our activity. And sleep is not enough. Training the mind to slow down and be still in present moment awareness and using that experience as a daily tool could quite literally save you thousands in medical costs, prescription costs, and maybe even therapy costs. Learning to be with ourselves peacefully, and to allow that power to be absorbed on all levels of our being is where the true power of stillness shines. It is a pivotal part of the Self-honoring lifestyle.
I hope you enjoyed today's blog! Have a beautiful week.
Always for YOU,
Karen