Day 238 - A Year to Clear - Check In WEEK 34 - Cultivating Stillness

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Lesson 238: Check In WEEK 34 - Cultivating Stillness

This week serve a reminder that we definitely need to take time for ourselves to practise stillness. I personally chose my daily one minute practise of closing my eyes and breathing in through my nose and out through the mouth. I feel like this really refreshes the senses and allows me to do away with worries. My body feels lighter as a result. The lessons have taught me that we need to do this as part of our own self-care routine and it’s important even to just do it for one minute a day. We can all spare one minute a day to cultivate stillness so what’s really stopping you? Nothing really.

Day 237 - A Year to Clear - Step Into Stillness

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Lesson 237: Step Into Stillness

Today we are to fill in these statements:

• After one day [ten days] of one minute clearing this week, I am beginning to feel ______

• It is easy [not easy] to "step into" quiet stillness in this way because ______

• It is safe for me to rest the mind because ______

• I must find time to rest because ______

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My answers:

• After one day [ten days] of one minute clearing this week, I am beginning to feel better and lighter.

• It is easy to "step into" quiet stillness in this way because I know I need to do it for me.

• It is safe for me to rest the mind because it adds to my self-care.

• I must find time to rest because it’s good for my overall well-being.

Day 235 - A Year to Clear - Ways to Cultivate Stillness - One Minute at a Time

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Lesson 235: Ways to Cultivate Stillness - One Minute at a Time

Below is a list that Stephanie Bennett Vogt has cultivated to take moments of time to practise stillness through her own experience. Today we are to think about the ways in which we practise stillness and if they are different to those suggestions below.

“- Rest in beauty: Look up from your screen and place your attention on something beautiful and allow your mind to rest in that.

- Take your time: Deliberately slow down for one minute when your impulse is to speed up (and allow yourself to squirm).

- Insert awareness: Release tension by observing it. See if tightness eases by being a witnessing presence.

- Be curious: Pretend you know nothing; invite wonder; accept mystery as a legitimate state of being.

- Wait and watch: Allow an answer to reveal itself through one of your senses. Don’t force or overthink it.

- Do nothing: Allow things to be just as they are without doing anything to fix or change anything.

- Don’t personalize (since it’s rarely about you): Pretend that everything that does not feel good is not yours. Repeat “It’s not mine.”

- Breathe and release: Breathe deeply from your chest down to your belly through the soles of your feet and into the Earth.

- Wash and release: Use the simple practice of washing your hands (body, dishes) for one minute to quiet your mind and release stress.

- Sit in silence: Sit quietly for one minute with no agenda.”

— Stephanie Bennett Vogt

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My favourite ways to practise stillness include:

·         Closing my eyes for a moment and taking deep breaths in through the nose and breathing our from the mouth.

·         I practise in the shower a visual exercise of closing my eyes and imagining the water is golden light washing over me and washing away any worries and negativity down the drain.

·         I like to be in nature just as it is. Don’t have to do much but just sit there and appreciate.

·         I like putting on some music and allow my thoughts to wander off, so I can just be in the music.

·         Sometimes I like doing nothing… like literally nothing.

·         I like switching off with a TV series that won’t take any brain power to watch it.

·         I sometimes just put on music and dance around because it’s a release.

·         Sometimes I may just go for a walk with no destination.

What are some ways you can get into stillness? There are so many ways to calm everything down to a state of peace. We just need to be aware that it’s needed and we just have to take the step to want to be in it.

Day 234 - A Year to Clear - Lesson 234: Flip the Switch

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Lesson 234: Lesson 234: Flip the Switch

We spend a lot of our time doing tasks throughout our day – from remembering to wash the dishes, deciding what to eat for lunch, sitting all day at the computer working, worrying about finances, thinking about what we look good in… the lists go on and on. If you stop for a moment and clear your mind for a moment, that’s welcoming in stillness. Stillness is just a step or “switch” away. Can it be that easy though? Can we just flip a switch and be instantly still? What do you think you need to do to achieve this stillness on a day to day basis?

When I get overwhelmed, I personally close my eyes and start to breathe. I think this is my stillness that I require to just calm things down. There are days where I stay home and do nothing, as in literally don’t think about anything and watch a senseless show so I’m not over working my brain – this is also how I achieve stillness. Being around my friends actually help me find stillness. Even though I may be doing an activity with them, it actually takes me away from my own worries, so to me that’s achieving stillness in another way. Another form of stillness is practising meditation. This blocks out any outside noise and allows you to dispel the negative of the day and replenish in silence. I believe meditation to be such a life saver in that regard. And one final one off the top of my head is listening to music. Not doing anything but chilling to music or dancing to it as a form of letting go, allows me not to think and be still in the music.

I think achieving stillness requires awareness to bring it in. What do you think?

Day 233 - A Year to Clear - The Renewing Magic of Grace

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Lesson 233: The Renewing Magic of Grace

Today’s lesson goes through those moments when we get sick and start to bombard our minds with worst case scenarios, or just thoughts about not wanting to be sick. We sometimes try so hard to resist the sickness and hating life when sick, when sometimes it’s telling us a wider message that is needed. Stephanie Bennett Vogt talks about how we could let those thoughts cycle around or we can detach from it. By surrendering in this way, you will find a stillness come about. Rather than fight, it’s a letting go and just being. By letting go in this way, you may feel “The enveloping, quieting, renewing magic. . . of grace." Today we are to think of a time when we experienced deep stillness and what did it feel like. Is it something you find yourself doing often?

I find deep stillness when I meditate. It’s something I do weekly and it’s something I do to close off from the world for a moment. I could do it more often for sure but sometimes I find I get my questions during my meditations than answers. It’s good for relaxing as I feel refreshed once doing it and I cultivate that stillness in this way. Another more recent example of stillness I had, was taking some time out of work just to be away from work. I had all these plans I wanted to do whilst on leave, especially for my business, but I got this strong feeling that I wasn’t supposed to do that. I was to surrender to rest. I just needed some sleep and to allow that rest in. I felt like I didn’t have enough time off actually. My mind and body had another plan for me, so I just surrendered to what it needed rather than what I thought I needed to do.

Embrace the art of letting go and detachment in order to bring in stillness. It’s all part of our self-care too.