“Winter is the slow-down. Winter is the search for self. Winter gives the silence you need to listen. Winter goes gray so you can see your own colors.”
~ Terri Guillemets
As the winter solstice draws near, I can feel the quietude and stillness of winter coming, like an old friend I haven’t seen in a long time. I want to pause, slow down and cherish each moment with this friend. Winter offers us a reprieve from constant action, from the constant “doing” of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I love being active and experiencing life in all its guises. I love creating and then working to make my creations a reality. Work, work, work, do, do, do. For me and for most people constant doing is easy, it is stillness that is hard.
The study and practice of yoga has helped me tremendously in this area of my life, albeit it’s taken a long time. It has helped me transform the idea of doing nothing into being still and loving it. I discovered that there is an art to stillness, with many benefits, beauty and truth.
For one, everything is energy (E=MC2), when you practice stillness, you begin to perceive that everything is alive, vibrating so rapidly it appears to be still. You realize that the energy of life is stillness and vice versa. We live in an animate world. When we begin to experience life “as living in an animate world”, life starts to become awe-inspiring, even the simplest things are magical.
“Stillness is not about focusing on nothingness; it’s about creating an emotional clearing to allow ourselves to feel, think, dream and question.”
~ Brené Brown
Stillness allows us to create space in our being so we can notice all the small things we really love. For me it could be as simple as enjoying a fresh cup of coffee, using all my senses to be fully present in the experience or listening to one of my daughters. She loves to talk. I love to notice her mannerisms, her expressions, her sense of humor and the fact that she’s her own work of art.
Stillness is a prelude to meditation. This is how I know practicing stillness is hard. I always have plenty of excuses why I can’t sit still, however when I get there, I do not want to leave. Stillness allows me to connect to the timelessness of life, even if I have a long to-do list, having had a few minutes to be still fills my cup.
I love to sit still in my sacred space. I know it is sacred because all of my good intentions, my faith, my gratitude and my hopes live there. I love to sit still, quietly allowing myself to feel their presence. Thoughts are real and the positive vibrations are comforting and beautiful.
“Silence is not an absence but a presence.
~ Anne D. LeClaire
The interesting thing about the practice of stillness is that the more we practice, the more stillness becomes the underlying backdrop of our life even when we are “doing”. Gradually, we become aware of this ever-present stillness. We discover it is interchangeable with our inner being, in yoga we called it the atman.
The best things in life are meant to last and they reside in the empty space of stillness. So even though being still is hard, practicing stillness brings a new level of awareness into our life. It helps us uncover the truth and the beauty of who we really are outside of ego, mind or body. Happy stillness!
“On one level, life is effervescent and active. On another level, it is absolutely still. The inner stillness nourishes the outer activity.”
~ Sadhguru
