Tag Archives: stillness

22

The Benefits of Your Stillness

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The stillness of life is going to provide all people with significant benefits. No matter where you go to find it, the peace and tranquility of time spent relaxing your body and retreating in your mind from the hustle of everyday life can calm your nerves and revitalize your brain. Seek out the places that are special to your heart and your soul. Quiet contemplation is essential for all people’s development as human beings. Finding a balance between time with others and time for yourself is one of the significant learning challenges of life. Here is a look at the benefits that can come from moments of meditation or simple stillness when we breathe more deeply, see more fully, hear more acutely, and find an understanding of who we are.

Reboot the Brain

One of the most significant benefits of time alone is that it allows you to reboot your brain. Thoughts are coming at you in rapid-fire succession, and being able to step back and look at the ideas you have been entertaining allows you to stop focusing on the ones that are not serving you and your life and focus on the things you want to be a priority. Unwinding and revamping are great uses of time for yourself.

This will also allow your brain to improve its work by increasing your ability to concentrate and focus your thoughts. Hone in on the ideas that resonate with you and move you toward the experiences you want. A higher level of productivity will result from having some alone time. Goals are created, and the path to accomplishing them is formed in these moments spent in quiet contemplation of our lives.

Creates Better Relationships

Having time to yourself makes your relationships better. Without time to create and think about ways to improve your life, stagnation is the only other option. Interacting with others brings new perspectives into your life, and time to yourself helps you evaluate all your views. By knowing yourself better and liking who that person is, you have much more to bring back to a relationship in caring, kindness, experiences, thoughts, and words. All are increased by having time to think by yourself.

Alone time allows you to increase your ability to practice empathy toward other people and their situations in life. In times of deep thought, an understanding can help you know what will make you happy and allow all things in your life to move with more synchronicity. When problems do exist, this is time to work through them from the thoughts you have, the emotions they elicit, and what action to take to alleviate the pain you may be in. Bringing these discoveries back to your relationships creates more honest and powerful connections with others.

Finding Your Balance

This can be a difficult thing to do. Either we spend too much time with others, allowing no time to ourselves, or we are trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of being by ourselves, looking for more connections. There is a healthy balance I think we are all striving for. It all begins, I believe, with accepting who you are and liking that person. Never feel wrong about the things you enjoy doing. If they don’t hurt anyone, do them freely and joyfully. Follow your interests, and you will also meet people with similar interests.

For all things, there is time. A time to be alone and a time to have company and understand what works for you will lead to your happiness. Society would like to tell you what they think, but I urge you not to listen to societal messages. We are all individual programs; what works for someone else and makes them happy will not work for me. Too often, people feel something is wrong with them if they don’t fit into a specific mold. Fit into your mold. Be yourself and find the time to develop your person and the life you want to live. Find the stillness and listen to the voice within you when you are there.

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.”-Eckhart Tolle.

“The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.”-Bruce Lee.

“Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source. Returning to the source is stillness, which is nature’s way.”-Laozi.

 

21

Be Still

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Positive Thought Project

Stillness –  the absence of movement or sound.

As a young person, stillness didn’t factor in my life.  I often got impatient with what life was bringing. Hurry up! Let’s get to the next stage already. I couldn’t wait to have new experiences and see new things. Being impatient is one of the shortfalls of youth.  There are patterns in life, and each has its purpose; as a young person, I didn’t comprehend or appreciate the value each stage brings.  Life presents us

Quiet moments at dawn or dusk can provide more answers than many other experiences.
Quiet moments at dawn or dusk can provide more answers than many other experiences.

With many challenging circumstances, thrills, accomplishments, and disappointments.  It is essential to find moments of mindful introspection, a relaxing lull in life with all the excitement.  Taking advantage of the down moments begins with paying attention to our thoughts, words, and actions.  Every day we have a chance to enjoy the stillness around us and grow from the simple act of introspection.  Contemplating how far we have come, where we are at right now, and the destination we would like to reach in the future.

Quiet Time

A quiet period is a time life gives you a space to look around and take a breath or two.

Quiet periods come in life to give you the space to look around, take a breath or two, and see how you are doing. Often there is a lull period after any big moment, positive or negative,  where a person needs a chance to gather themselves before moving toward the next goal, adventure, challenge, or life experience.

Unfortunately, in our society, downtime is not appreciated or valued.  It is looked upon as wasted time or an unwanted time of emptiness. A time that you could spend doing something. We work to fill all of our moments with mindless entertainment. Games, TV, movies, or just music in the background all engage our minds and stop us from thinking about anything of substance. What are we afraid of after all?

Wisdom in Silence

We are afraid of the silence because if we think about our lives, we might see the places we are falling short.  There is a wisdom in that silence we might catch if we find a quiet moment.  Your thoughts may lead to a change in behavior and a greater appreciation for the people and things already in life. So often, we are always looking for that job or that relationship that will make us happy. We never realize that we are capable of being happy right now.  That is the gold one can find in the stillness.

Reflection

Reflection is am important part of learning. Take the time to reflect on what you experience.
Reflection is am an essential part of learning. Take the time to reflect on what you experience.

Reflection is one of the most valuable things that I have taken from the lull periods of my life.  Whenever there is an ending of any kind, there will be a calm period. Sunshine after rain, tranquility after turmoil, seems to be the gift of life. It may be only for a moment, or it may be longer, but the time should be used to evaluate and appreciate the situation you have just experienced, who you are, and the value it has brought to life. Then let it go, taking the lessons with you, into the gift of the stillness and out into the world beyond the learning.

Processing traumatic, emotional events is not always easy. The value of experience can’t be seen through pain, fear, and doubt.  The dots can only be connected, looking backward.  We choose to embrace things or ignore them, but they are still there. It is in the stillness that we can choose our path.  We need to learn specific life lessons before moving on to something else, more complex or advanced. The silence allows us to evaluate a situation you have just gone through and the feelings that have arisen in you, and how it has affected your mind and heart.  That is the gift that stillness can give you a moment to understand, learn, evaluate, process, and hopefully move forward with a complete toolbox.

Questions Lead to Answers

Reflection is a time that I have learned to cherish. To look at even bad situations which are not enjoyable to find that lesson. It has always been there, and if you don’t learn it now, it will present itself again, later.  Before long, you will be on to the next adventure of life, and there won’t be time to look back appropriately and to find the answers.  When the calming times present themselves to you, take advantage and look for the meaning of the experience, ask the questions; What did I learn? How Was this valuable? What am I not seeing yet? Seek the motive in the situation, understand the movement of life around you, learn what you need to know to be the best version of yourself.

There is a lesson to learn about the relationship, the job, the trip, the climb, the project, the graduation, the birth, the death …………  In a moment of quiet, there are the answers you are seeking. They are waiting in the ripples of a lake or underneath the rocks of a river, or in the quiet of a moment. Take that moment and look for them. They provide beauty to all of life that most people miss because they are too busy avoiding thought to look inside the stillness and understand the message that is living there specifically for you to hear.

Life is full of patterns, of “highs” and “lows” that are only different moments of mental intensity that allow for learning or understanding.  Many live their entire lives with questions and never take the time to seek answers. Experience makes a deal with us that there is always a reason behind it all.  The stillness provides time for reflection and contemplation; we can find solutions if we recognize the lull’s value and appreciate the silence and the answers it gives. It all starts with how you look at your thoughts, words, and actions. Be still today, know what you have experienced, see where you are, and plan for going.

“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.” Eckhart Tolle

“Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.”~Meister Eckhart