Stillness for me is sitting up after the kids have gone to bed and listening to the sounds outside. Stillness is pausing while washing the dishes to breathe. Stillness is seeing the light shine off of my little girl’s hair. Stillness is a full inhale and a full exhale. Stillness is access to the present moment. Many wonderful things exist here.
Our world is busy busy busy! Our bodies, our minds and our hearts are stretched so far. It is habitual, it is never-ending, it has even been glorified. ‘Being busy’ is good, but we also need to know how to stop. Especially if we are creative, especially if we have a funny feeling that ‘something isn’t right.’ We need to stop feeling guilty for stopping, for allowing ourselves some space to… j u s t BE.
“When we pause, allow a gap and breathe deeply, we can experience instant refreshment. Suddenly, we slow down, and there’s the world.”
Sillness, in my experience, is a necessary pre-requisit to creativity. Creative people need to have that space and time to hear their voice. Ideas are born in those moments free of unnecessary clutter.
I also believe we are our own compass. We have within us the wisdom to know what we need and how to heal and change our lives. We can always look on the outside for answers, and sometimes the universe is nudging us along the way. But the real truth is INSIDE. It’s there waiting, for that time when we can actually hear it, or need to hear it.
I’m sharing this because I kept distracting myself from the lessons I really needed to learn. I sought refuge in being busy, busy. I was busy being who I thought I needed to be. And then one day I stopped. Well, I sat down and finally asked myself the questions…
At the time I was crazy-tired with motherhood, and lost. And I just kept on running, taking on some action that I thought might fullfill the missing link.
And then hitting the bottom made me STOP. It was that moment where I was at the kitchen table, I actually had to stop and finally ask the questions.
What do I need to do feel alive? What do I need to do to change this situation?
And I waited. Nobody showed up with a large speaker and told me the answers, but I knew I just had to keep asking myself. And I had to make space in my life for some answers to reveal themselves.
I started to cultivate every day, a small amount of time to spend contemplating change. It felt good to actually stop because it felt like I was facing it instead of running from it. I had to get still. I had to stop distracting myself. I started practising yoga again and it felt good. I was tapping into the present moment. And I soon realized the answers started to trickle up. I also started songwriting again! And also I could see some lifestyle changes and mental patterns that I could tackle too.
What would stillness be for YOU?
Think about it. Maybe you have something you want to change / fix / achieve that you just can’t wrap your head around. Start with stillness. You might think it’s not even possible to achieve it. It might feel overwhelming. Start with stillness. It’s going to be hard, there are so many things to do and ways to keep busy, but you won’t know the answers until you stop for a few moments. Breathe. Then start asking yourself the questions you want the answers to.
You have the answers, they are waiting for you.
I hope this blog inspires you! Feel free to comment below ♡
-terra
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