Learn to be still.
How would you describe the movement of your soul? It’s a tough question isn’t it? I don’t think it’s something I had ever considered until recently, but as I help people navigate their own life journeys through enhanced awareness, I have come to realize that the background movements of our soul create the currents through which we express our consciousness.
And my soul could use a lot more stillness.
But stillness is in short supply in our world today. When was the last time you sat quietly, doing nothing? How long has it been since you treated yourself to a freedom from the outer world, and instead concentrated on that small quiet voice inside of you that is screaming for your attention, desperate to help you find balance, peace, wisdom and fulfillment?
When was the last time you listened in silence, or the absence of stimulus?
I realize the question itself is wrong, because we are never ‘doing nothing’. Even in the midst of quiet (which is not the same as silence, but is often mistaken for such) our thoughts flow over us in a myriad of media-trained self assessments; always running, never waiting, desperate to find the next thing to help us feel whole, significant, enough.
Twisting our soul into a form not chosen by us, but out of a desperation to fit in; to be ok, to be ‘good enough’.
And still our soul moves erratically, unbalanced, lacking its own confidence, responding at the whim of others instead of ourselves.
We have forsaken our friend silence, in favor of our enemy, the constant distraction. No longer do we sit in quiet contemplation of the majesty of the physical world, with its mountains, rivers, deserts, fields, forests and oceans.
Just as we have divorced ourselves from the appreciation of sincere, heartfelt, slow, quiet conversation, we have embraced the cacophony of constant high speed but low quality communication through the medium of the digital age.
We have learned to abhor stillness, and adopted in its place the electronic screaming of a thousand unknown, unqualified opinions that masquerade as intelligence. We are losing our faculty for reason, because we have stopped using it.
And we have lost the peace that is our birthright, the calmness that comes from experience, the kindness that accompanies selflessness and the wisdom that comes from time.
We have lost ourselves.
If you truly desire to find stillness in your soul, you have to make peace with the darkness within yourself and within the universe.
Until you have balanced your soul in your estimation of the universe, forever will you be moving without true purpose, seeking without finding, running until weary, and screaming without cessation.
The stillness you seek for your soul is found in the silence of your senses, and the contemplation of your consciousness.
Today, I invite you to choose stillness. I promise you, the choice will change you.
-- Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings