THE ANATOMY OF SLOW - STILLNESS

The other week I found myself simultaneously on two equally important phone calls, then an old friend appeared out of nowhere in front of me, who I just had to speak to. Short of breath, for a few moments I was actually having three conversations at the same time, which of course is frazzling for anyone. That day I also was moving some yoga equipment between spaces, had a massage client to see before the class, all within the upcoming hours, needless to say that was a dizzyingly busy day that I never want to repeat.

So Busy-ness these days seems to be a way for people to measure their worth, as often the reply when you tell someone youre busy is “Ahh good for you.. Why is that? How did being busy become such a good thing?

I guess it is since we do live in societies that we have been conditioned our whole lives to measure our very worth by how much we produce, so then we associate doing more with producing more and being more valuable. Which would naturally demonise it’s opposite, that being Rest, which then loses it’s intrinsic value, Those who do rest start to be seen as for lazy, lethargic, inefficient, hippies or dreamers.

I’m not against productivity at all, but I no longer need to produce anything to prove myself to be of value, in fact I found the opposite to be more true these days. When you truly allow yourself times of rest by actually listening to your body and allowing moments of Stillness to be scheduled into your diary and your day. then you will easily manage your busyness in much better ways. Ironically you will also become more productive, but that is NOT the ultimate goal. Moments of Stillness brings back presence, awareness and attention, so now when I do allow these small windows of work I often get so much more done because of the quality of attention and care that I bring to the tasks. It goes without saying also, but for those who need reminding, when we don’t sleep or rest well, we make poor decisions, are easily irritable, moody, snappy and in general just try to get through the day rather than from the day.

Stillness to me is how I stop the dizzying pace of life in these energetically wild and challenging times of global change.

This Summer I had a serious bitch slap from the Universe which dropped me right into the Stillness of life, through my body, which is always the way home.

I had been hiking in the mountains just after sunrise and was trying to reach into one of my favourite meditation cave spots. I moved too quickly and while I tested the ground with my left foot I didn’t test the rock wall with my right hand, grabbing while climbing and the sandy mountain crumbled away and I fell onto my left foot. I didn’t truly feel it was sprained until I got to London one week later as I cycle everywhere, hang in hammocks and spend a lot of time in the sea in Dahab. The realty of the seriousness of my ankle being damaged hit me while in London, forcing me not to just slow down but to be actually STOP and be still.

So for almost 6 weeks while staying in central London’s Bermondsey at a friends flat, I made a local cafe - Bartlets my home office and invited friends to come meet me as I was immobile. It was tough but also touching to see some old friends visit but at same time to not even be able to work, jog or dance while in sunny London, I was struggling a lot mentally..

Though in hindsight, I can see that I was being shown how to take my own advice fully, what it means to truly slow down and be still. Through the Stillness, I literally found God and so many goosebump creating events happened to me in that short Lonodn visit that I am yet to process.

Be still and know that I am God, or something close to that saying, from the bible. This is facts and hard truth. And I rarely if ever quote the bible, but there is peace in that line because it is not just true, but a Truth.

When we are endlessly, chronically and often stupidly keeping busy, moving around and saying Yes to every invitation, what are we really doing? Honestly?

We are running away from our centers, our inner truths and the quiet voice that is always talking to us from our hearts and guts. Distraction, numbing, disassociating or procrastinating etc . they are all Avoidance tactics that are fueled and operate on Busyness.

When we are so so busy, we never have time to listen to what our hearts and souls truly want. it’s too scary to even talk about the heart and the soul, its all just mind and maybe some body talk - from the lens of the mind, but heart and soul talk, your average westerner freaks' out.

Stillness brings you into straight alignment with your heart and soul, and then you can hear your soul speak. And trust me your soul wants completely different shit from what your mind wants.

Most of us KNOW this in our bones, so we keep the circus act/ rat race and endless to-do lists going so we don’t look within. But this pattern and program needs to stop, especially if we are to evolve humanity out of this polarised, infantile and apathetic state we are all currently in..

From my experience, I have found that Stillness is a direct line to God, or the universe intelligence or your higher self or whatever you want to call it.

Being Busy all the time is truly an illness, it will make you ill, trust me. The Yang fire energy of endless DO-ing, will eventually burn you out. Remember the balance, the quieter moments of just BE-ing are absolutely necessary for your body mind and spirit. Also realistically it’s no longer cool, trendy or even necessary to be busy all the time. Just stop it. Stop it!

HOW?

*Schedule small moments of Stillness into your diary daily- 30minutes or even 15 if thats all you have, to do absolutely nothing. To sit still and just breathe or sit by your favourite tree.

*Call your best friend now and meet up with him/ her/ them and practice role playing scenarios where you learn to Say NO to each other so that you ca have more free time by not overcommitting yourself to work events, meetings and gatherings you don’t actually truly want or need to go to.

*Hang out with little kids, ideally 7 or under, who are immersed in an activity. When kids are creative they drop into this magic-portal like space where Stillness is so tangible, it’s highly meditative and humbling to witness. Little people can be the greatest teachers. DO this daily if you can.

Take back your time, turn your phone off for a whole afternoon, come back to your body and heart and then you will start to the hear the voice of your soul once more. Stillness takes you there…

Enjoy the process and do share how you have found some ways back to Stillness in your own life.