Category Archives: Stillness

Meditation Tips, Quotes - 2009, Stillness

Just sit

1 Comment

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits. – Satchel Paige

We’re busy bodies. What does that do to our mental and physical health? What impact does it have on our spiritual makeup?

Work and action is good, don’t get me wrong. To gain clarity of thought and a window into the best action to take, ‘sit time’ is crucial.

Another name for ‘sit time’ is stillness! Here’s how you might attempt it.

Meditation Tip #5:

  • Step 1: Find a place to sit/relax
  • Step 2: Just sit
  • Step 3: Focus on your body, don’t stay in your mind. Notice your hands, feet, legs, your breath and don’t make thoughts up about any of what you see. That’s key.
  • Step 4: When you think of something, become aware of that and put your focus back on just being.

Result: Enjoy the ensuing peace and quiet! Take it with you wherever you go.

Recommendation:

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Quotes - 2009, Stillness

A Great Wind bears you!

1 Comment

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky. – Ojibway saying

When ever you’re sad, feel the blues and otherwise don’t know what depresses you, a bit of stillness might be in order. In that stillness remind yourself that being alive is proof that the ‘great wind’, the might Spirit, the cause of all causes supports us and is with us. The stillness allows us to connect to that which is.

Take comfort in the fact that you really do matter and that another day will yet dawn.

Recommendation:

God Is Closer Than You Think: This Can Be the Greatest Moment of Your Life Because This Moment Is the Place Where You Can Meet God

Quotes - 2009, Stillness

Creative solitude

One of the greatest necessities is to discover creative solitude. – Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg provides the secret to all that we truly crave. To connect with our inner creativity, to connect with that place where joy and peace flow from, solitude and stillness time is essential.

When we’re still; the juices start to flow, it’s something you shouldn’t deny yourself, it’s the very wellspring that leads to your ultimate wellbeing!

Recommendation: The Artist’s Way

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]

Quotes - 2009, Stillness

How’s your inner life?

1 Comment

In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office. – Henry David Thoreau

The modern day equivalent to the Post Office is email, the internet and the cell phone! When we don’t have a satisfying inner life, we run towards outwardly distractions to occupy our minds. We fill our precious time with chores and activities so that we don’t have to confront the emptiness of our own lives.

What’s the inner life? It’s our thoughts and psyche. It’s our self-perception and sense of self-worth. It’s also our chance of touching base with the very reality that created all. An essence of God resides within us, ever waiting for the time when our minds can be a little still. The inner life is our relationship with this essence.

Contact is made slowly and gently. It’s the portal to a peace and contentment that cannot be found without.

Check it out.

Recommendation: Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tse

Tao Te Ching

Meditation Tips, Quotes - 2009, Stillness

Do nothing!

It is because artists do not practice, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to worship reverently the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to create a new religion. – G. K. Chesterton

For how long can you sit still and do nothing? What part of you is it that doesn’t allow that? What do you lose if you’re unable to just be?

It pays to nourish this ability. Just take it easy, relax and literally do nothing.

One way to make this a habit is to make meditation or stillness a habit. Here’s another Stillness Tip.

Meditation Tip #4:

Relax into a chair and settle in. Next focus on each major muscle group in your body, from your facial muscles, to the shoulder ones, then lower and upper back. Focus on your stomach, behind, legs and calves as well. Ensure that each muscle area is relaxed and not tense.

Next close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths. The breaths should be long drawn (through your nose), held for a few seconds and then exhaled (via pinched lips) slowly. This relaxes your body and starts to relax your mind.

Where is your attention now?

Likely it’s inside your head. Consciously bring your attention to where your heart is and stay there. Notice how you might lose track and get lost in a thought. Notice this too; then bring your attention back to the heart.

Stay here for at least 5 minutes. Repeat twice more daily, for maximum benefit.

Recommendation: AM Meditation

Meditation Tips, Quotes - 2009

I AM, available…

I will speak to you if you listen. I will come to you if you will invite Me. I will show you then that I have always been there. All ways. – Neale Donald Walsch

The creator, the universal creative essence, indwells us. That presence is available. We don’t know it because we haven’t paid attention.

When you get that flash of inspiration or that kind thought for someone else, that’s God talking to you. If you practice listening you’ll be amazed at how integrated God is into our lives!

He has always been present, and in ‘all ways’ has he made his presence felt, if we but listen and pay attention.

A technique developed by Carl Jung called Active Imagination can help you connect! And of course meditation or stillness helps!

Recommendation: God Is Closer Than You Think

Meditation Tips, Quotes - 2009, Stillness

Arise out of fear!

To him who is in fear, everything rustles. – Sophocles

  • How many fears are you harboring in your life?
  • How many of these fears are actually conscious ones? How many lie deeper still?
  • What do these fears cost you, your life and family?
  • How would your life be if you were calm, peaceful, at-ease and fearless!?
  • When do you plan to answer some of these questions for yourself?

Meditation Tip #3:

Start with Tip #2 and then once you feel settled let yourself relax even further. Now connect with your inner self by consciously putting your attention on your heart. You’ll notice that your attention so far had been inside your head and now can shift, if you let it.

Notice all thoughts as they arise. Just notice them, do not attach to them. As soon as you notice that you’ve attached to a particular thought and followed it, because that will happen, let go, and just be. Now notice the next thought that soon arises. At first this will happen a lot, over time though your mind will settle down, bit by bit.

The key is practice and regularity.

Can you invest just 10 minutes morning and evening, in this practice, for your own greatest benefit?

Previous meditation tips.

Recommendation: AM Meditation