Silence & Stillness

During the winter season, nature gets quiet and still and takes a long rest. Just like nature we are not meant to go full out all the time. Without rest, without some quiet and stillness, we cannot keep going at our highest level of functioning - physically, mentally & emotionally. Everything in life is meant to be balanced out in someway and if we don’t take the time to keep that balance for ourselves, the Universe will lend us a hand but maybe not in the way we would like.

Last week's blog explored Satya - Truth, the ultimate expression of this being our true self that is connected to our higher consciousness. Experiencing this truth comes in part from being able to listen to and trust our inherent, internal, intuitive voice. Listening to that on a deeper level takes silence and stillness. Why does it feel so difficult for many of us to quiet our minds? For starters, we may think that in order to get to that silence and stillness we need to shut out all of our thoughts and feelings. But actually noticing and bringing awareness to those thoughts and feelings is the first step in quieting them. To not notice them and try to jump over them is really to "bypass" them altogether and although that might work for awhile, it can ultimately slow us way down and keep us stuck along the road of our life's journey.

In our contemporary world of instant gratification and "easily solved" problems, we may find it more than a little difficult to sit in stillness and silence and listen to our internal voice for any length of time. We may even find it downright boring. But what is beyond the boredom? Might we consider going through that in order to get to something that actually connects us and grounds us? Could it be worth it to feel the temporary discomfort of feeling bored? Or restless, or sad, or some other "negative" feeling? In the pursuit of enlightenment or even just a happy, balanced life, there isn't really any "bypass" or "life hack" to be had. We must go through our places of feeling less than at ease or less than happy all the time. For those that have succeeded, they can tell you..it IS worth it.