Day 235 - A Year to Clear - Ways to Cultivate Stillness - One Minute at a Time
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Photo by John Westrock on Unsplash
Lesson 235: Ways to Cultivate Stillness - One Minute at a Time
Below is a list that Stephanie Bennett Vogt has cultivated to take moments of time to practise stillness through her own experience. Today we are to think about the ways in which we practise stillness and if they are different to those suggestions below.
“- Rest in beauty: Look up from your screen and place your attention on something beautiful and allow your mind to rest in that.
- Take your time: Deliberately slow down for one minute when your impulse is to speed up (and allow yourself to squirm).
- Insert awareness: Release tension by observing it. See if tightness eases by being a witnessing presence.
- Be curious: Pretend you know nothing; invite wonder; accept mystery as a legitimate state of being.
- Wait and watch: Allow an answer to reveal itself through one of your senses. Don’t force or overthink it.
- Do nothing: Allow things to be just as they are without doing anything to fix or change anything.
- Don’t personalize (since it’s rarely about you): Pretend that everything that does not feel good is not yours. Repeat “It’s not mine.”
- Breathe and release: Breathe deeply from your chest down to your belly through the soles of your feet and into the Earth.
- Wash and release: Use the simple practice of washing your hands (body, dishes) for one minute to quiet your mind and release stress.
- Sit in silence: Sit quietly for one minute with no agenda.”
My favourite ways to practise stillness include:
· Closing my eyes for a moment and taking deep breaths in through the nose and breathing our from the mouth.
· I practise in the shower a visual exercise of closing my eyes and imagining the water is golden light washing over me and washing away any worries and negativity down the drain.
· I like to be in nature just as it is. Don’t have to do much but just sit there and appreciate.
· I like putting on some music and allow my thoughts to wander off, so I can just be in the music.
· Sometimes I like doing nothing… like literally nothing.
· I like switching off with a TV series that won’t take any brain power to watch it.
· I sometimes just put on music and dance around because it’s a release.
· Sometimes I may just go for a walk with no destination.
What are some ways you can get into stillness? There are so many ways to calm everything down to a state of peace. We just need to be aware that it’s needed and we just have to take the step to want to be in it.