Sometimes I am at my stillest when I am moving my fastest.
This admission can be uncomfortable because hustle and bustle gets a bad wrap these days. Everybody wants to tell you to slow down! stop! rest! But…true confession… I find it very difficult to feel still when I am still. When I stop and tell myself to settle into that big comfy couch and just chill for a while, my brain takes that as permission to rev itself right up. To think of everything I could be doing, should be doing, want to be doing.
Yeah, that’s not very restful at all.
Now, a lot of people DO find the couch very comfy these days, particularly if there is a screen for entertainment. But, while that feels stopped, it is not stilled. Still, for me, has to do with the mind that is central to that body. When a screen provides constant stimuli and on-going input, we are not being still, we are collapsing into sedentary.
Stillness is all around us, ready to welcome us.
Stillness can be claimed in the stationary:
- Stillness is in the very long line at the post office.
- Stillness is in the view out the window.
- Stillness is at the traffic light that just turned red.
Stillness can be embraced in the engaging:
- Stillness of … its coming together!
- Stillness of … a team that’s meshing.
- Stillness of … clear understanding.
Stillness can be allowed to enter in:
- Stilled in the pounding of footsteps.
- Stilled in the regularity of pedaling.
- Stilled in the sounds of nature.
Stillness can be inserted:
- The stillness of deep calming breaths.
- The stillness of focus on a word.
- The stillness of a familiar tune or lyric.
Yes, stillness is ready and available everywhere, no matter your state of hustle or bustle. It’s a state of being that is central to all that you are doing. Or it can be, if you claim it, embrace it, allow it, or insert it. It’s there waiting for you to find it and to show you what it knows.
Stillness is wise. And for those of us with active imaginations and ready responses, she is also insightful.
Where will you meet Stillness today?
