Silence can be deafening at times
I want to start by saying slowing down can be extremely hard. To be with your own thoughts when you might have purposely worked to shove them down is challenging. Things come up that you thought you dealt with, things get louder that you don't want to hear, and now you have brought your awareness there so you feel the pressure of deciding what to do about it.
Like anything stillness is a practice
Stillness can be hard. I was chatting with a few people after my yin/yoga nidra class last week and they were saying how they come because they hate it but need it.
I told her I could relate. I would have rather done burpees, sprints anything but sit still in a 75 minute yoga class which is primarily holding poses for 3-5 minutes in silence 😱
What we both said was showing up week after week helped us learn to be okay in the stillness. I present day love stillness and prefer a quieter class where the teacher doesn’t do a ton of talking so I can be with my thoughts be in the quietness.
It’s a practice though. Just as doing burpees, or sprints aren’t easy for people right off the bat, sitting in silence and stillness is also a skill.
Don’t beat yourself up if you feel like you “should” be better at the stillness especially if it’s not something you practice.
Just like in fitness if you don’t practice sprints they will feel hard after a month hiatus.
In our society it’s easy to be surrounded by noise so stillness is a conscious practice. That needs to be worked on or it will feel hard after a month of not practicing.
What is your relationship with stillness like?
Ways to practice stillness
- Turn the radio off in your car when driving
- Practice meditation daily even if it's "just" a few minutes
- Devote 5 minutes a day to stillness and doing nothing if you feel more versed in stillness try 30 minutes a day.
- Use mantras such as I sense, I feel, I trust
- Practice diaphragmatic breathing
- Yoga Nidra- it is more of an awakening but a great place to start if quietness is something you're not comfortable with
- Shavasana- Find a guided shavasana practice online and just do the resting element of a yogic practice
Wanting to go deeper with stillness make sure you check out the Seasonal Living Collective
I wanted to create this program to help women become more confident in listening to our intuition by using tools that have been at our disposal for centuries. In recent years we’ve forgotten our connection to the powers that lie deep in our bones and I want to help you awaken to your powers once again.
