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So I step into the train and take a seat next to a window. Childhood memories of travelling and seeing trees rushing backward flood my consciousness. Then, I remember a friend asking on social media, whether trees stopped moving when we drove past them. Suddenly it occurs to me. Maybe we are the ones who got too busy to observe.
I choose to focus on a particular tree, and it begins to move backward. The closer it is, the faster it rushes past the window. I try to observe the trees collectively and distantly. They are slow or simply don't move at all.
Why did the trees stop moving?
We grew up. We couldn’t focus on one thing, and mostly we looked at everything from a futuristic distant perspective. And in the chaos of our noise age, we sacrificed the opportunities and the divine rhythm of the ever-present now, in the altars of that which is to come!
I'm reminded of Eckhart Tolle’s words as they echo true;
“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world”
The greatest lesson we can learn from the dinosaur is that we need to embrace evolution, or we are damned to extinction. Stillness presents us with a powerful place to evolve, as it allows us to delve deeper into our authentic, true selves, and into our deeper emotional experiences. In this still space, we ensure that we do not get swallowed by the chaos and noise around us, numbing us from the very demons we need to face and slay before we can go out and slay in awesomeness. Or else by them, we get slain!
As times change and we move into the noise age, there is nothing more important than building the capacity, both in will and skill, to deliberately calm our minds, still the inner world, albeit for a minute, and be in the moment. For as long as a storm rages within, calm cannot be realised without. For AS WITHIN, SO WITHOUT.
It is the mind that allows one to experience joy, pleasure, and gratitude. A disturbed anxious mind cannot experience good, even when we are in a joyous and pleasurable space. You carry your storm with you, that way, ruining any state of calmness in spaces such as relationships, business ventures, the corner office, the road, etc. The opposite is also true. You can carry your calm with you, even in a stormy situation at work, at home, on the road, anywhere. So, CALL YOURSELF BACK TO STILLNESS!
Every man and woman, rich or poor, black or white, carries, within them, a paradise
Humanistic psychologists have theorised that human beings are basically good, and have an innate need to make themselves and the world better, and achieve self-actualization. This way, we constantly seek meaning, value, and creativity. Every man and woman, rich or poor, black or white, carry within them a paradise, a beauty so ingrained in them that nothing can take it away. Yes, it may be blocked, clogged, suppressed, dusty, adulterated, but not removed.
And whereas we carry within us a paradise, it is our responsibility to ensure that there is calm and tranquillity. No one wants to live in a stormy paradise. When you are relaxed, you experience everything at a higher level, and at higher energy. You spin forward, where others sink downward.
"Be anxious for nothing,” so says The Good Book
Every day, we are inundated with sounds. Some that are pleasant, others that are not so pleasant. Some from within our control, and others from outside of our ability to silence them. Then there is the internal chatterbox in our mind, with an estimated 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts every day, with 80% of them being negative, and 95 % of them being similar to the ones we had yesterday.
The ‘21st-century mind’ is perpetually running on problem-solving mode. And based on the 80% negative thoughts, most problems of the mind are imagined. This perpetual problem-solving mode leaves the brain drained, and unable to solve real problems when they appear. That is why I insist that you call yourself back to stillness.
It is time to CREATE INTENTIONAL STILLNESS. Here are three starter pack beginner suggestions:
i) Scheduled silence: Someone once told me that that which is not scheduled is not likely to take place. Schedule some time for silence. It doesn’t have to be in a quiet place, as long as you can still the mind. Breath in slowly, and out even slower, and for two or so minutes, give no care about all the things you should care about.
ii) Find a stillness haven: As you master these two or so minutes of silence every so often across the day, find a place that inspires calmness for you. Could be inside your house, in a safe park, by the beach or lakeside, at a waterfall, or during a long silent walk. Wherever it is, find a place where you can retreat, in order to retreat inward. Then, go there often!
iii) How about some affirmations: One reason for silence is to ward off the thousands of stimuli that hit our five senses at any given moment. These moments of stillness offer us an opportunity to reprogram our past conditioning and feed our subconscious mind with the kind of stuff that would support our healing and fulfilled living.
Four examples of such affirmations come to mind.
“I am enough”
“Every day in every way, I am getting better and better”
“I appreciate the rhythm of life and let it unfold”
“I create happiness by appreciating the little things in life”
Repeat these, and find many more that speak to you, and begin to RE-CREATE YOUR LIFE AT A QUANTUM LEVEL!
Also read: 27 Positive Self-Affirmations to Inspire You Every Morning
