Transform your thinking through stillness

 

Transformative thinking begins in stillness, it is in stillness the greatest thoughts are born.

 Sound is like an ever present shadow, impossible to shake off.

Have you ever tried to find a space void of sound? You know, so you can hear your self thinking?

Where would you go?

Apparently, if we remove all outside sources of sound, we begin to hear our own bodies; the heart beating, the breathing, and even the blood flowing. One night when thunder and lightning was keeping me awake, I reached for my earplugs and much to my surprise, the thunder vanished, but instead I could hear my own breathing and heartbeat so loudly it kept me awake instead. (I became very aware of my body and it's sounds.)

Is there absolute silence?

How do we feel when its quiet all around us, is stillness a friend or foe?

For some people the internal chatter is so loud that external sounds are needed to sustain equilibrium. For some of us stillness is our secret retreat, yet for others stillness is experienced as loud and intrusive. 

"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you", writes Deepak Chopra.

Stillness can have different meanings; calm, peace, quiet, tranquillity, absence of movement and sound, rest.

However, the kind of stillness I would like to write about on this occasion, is stillness of mind.

The experience of just being.

What does that mean?

To stop doing.

For a moment, just be still and listen to the inner, still voice.

If that inner voice begins to give orders, make plans, chastise or rebuke, that is not your inner "still" voice, that's the echoes of other conversations, other people, other situations.

Your inner "still" voice is for you, your core self, the essence of you.

How do we get in touch with this "still" inner voice?

Perhaps we begin with setting aside some time for solitude in a comfortable peaceful setting, we turn of all "i-thingys", and gently explain to our nearest and dearest our intentions. It can be difficult for some to understand and appreciate that for some of us to "recharge" we need to do so in solitude, so a few kind words of explanation may go a long way.

Perhaps sometimes, our culture behaves as a self-organising conspiracy against solitude and stillness. In global economy, a quiet moment is an under-developed resource. Stillness, or silence, is but lost revenue.  Just how much does a minute of advertising cost in primetime?

The Greeks recognised two modes of times: Chronos=time measured by clocks, calendars, watches....and Kairos=organic, cyclical, intimate, bodily.

The clock on the wall separating the past from the future, the body clock recognising the right moment from the wrong for giving birth.

In stillness, we can ask ourselves those questions we keep pushing away, pretend we don't hear, wouldn't dream of asking.

If we don't, we may run the risk of those un-asked questions ending up shaping our lives.

 

Stillness is the fertile soil,

 a question asked,.. the seed,

an answer,... the blossom,

an insight,.... the fruit.

 

 "Health, contentment and trust

                                                Are your greatest possessions,
                                                 And freedom your greatest joy.
                                                  Look within.
                                                                 Be still."  (Buddha)

 

"When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world."  (Eckhart Tolle)