<p><em>“Silence is a source of great strength.”</em></p>

<p>To escape the chaos of our daily lives, many of us try to meditate, mistaking it for another activity, something we have to <strong>do.</strong></p>
<p>The concept of sitting still is doing absolutely nothing, a concept alien to many of us with a mindset of always <strong>doing stuff</strong>.</p>

Being Vs Doing

<p><em>“Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.”</em></p>

<p>This act of inaction is not natural to us, as we are never taught to just <strong>be</strong>, but to always <strong>do</strong> something.</p>
<p>But just by pausing, closing your eyes and sitting still for a minute and just focusing on your breath as it happens is the antidote to all the stress that the noise creates. </p>

Pause And Be Still

<p>Stillness has a strength, a calming effect on us and our surroundings. Our being still slows down the world around us, allowing us to focus and concentrate on the essential.</p>
<p>To be still takes courage in this frenetic, chaotic world where everyone is always in a rush. Being still allows us to find the strength from within, rather than outside.</p>

The Strength of Stillness

<ul>
<li>Find a time in the early morning hours when it is quiet, making sure you don’t fill your mind with junk and anxiety by checking your phone notifications.</li>
<li>Just sit and try to be comfortable with the concept of doing nothing: no drinking, no snacking, no planning your day. Just embracing calm.</li>
<li>Gradually, you will find other pockets of time during the day when you can just be, and your calmness will help you create stuff, exercise, work and do everything more effectively.</li>
</ul>

Finding Stillness

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<h2>Find Stillness to Cure the Illness</h2>
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<blockquote><p>“Silence is a source of great strength.” <strong>~Lao Tzu</strong></p></blockquote>
<h6>By <a href="http://leobabauta.com">Leo Babauta</a></h6>
<p>It’s a busy day, and you’re inundated by non-stop emails, text messages, phone calls, instant message requests, notifications, interruptions of all kinds.</p>
<p>The noise of the world is a dull roar that pervades every second of your life. It’s a rush of activity, a drain on your energy, a pull on your attention, until you no longer have the energy to pay attention or take action.</p>
<p>It’s an illness, this noise, this rush. It can literally make us sick. We become stressed, depressed, fat, burnt out, slain by the slings and arrows of technology.</p>
<p>The cure is simple: it’s stillness.<span></span></p>
<h3>Pause</h3>
<p>Take a minute out of your busy day to do this little exercise: pause in the middle of all you have to do, all that’s going on around you. Close your eyes, and sit still. Breathe in, and breathe out, and pay attention to your breath as it comes in and goes out. Just sit still, for about a minute.</p>
<p>This stillness might seem like inaction, which we’re taught is a bad thing. It’s lazy, it’s passive, it’s against our Puritan work ethic. And yet, this simple inaction can change our world.</p>
<p>Stillness calms us. It gives us a small oasis of quiet that allows us to hear our thoughts, that allows us to catch our breath, that gives us room to breathe at all. It is the antibody to the stress and rush we feel daily.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.” <strong>~Lao Tzu</strong></p></blockquote>
<h3>The Strength of Stillness</h3>
<p>Stillness has a calming effect on the world around us as well. By becoming still, we cause others to pause, to pay attention. Our quiet also quiets others. We set the mood for those who work and otherwise interact with us.</p>
<p>When we rush and set a frenetic pace, it stresses others and inspires them to rush frenetically too. Stillness has the opposite effect. It slows the world down, allows us to focus, gives us time for contemplation, for what matters most.</p>
<p>It takes strength to be still when others rush. It takes courage to be different, to go against the stream. But while others might think us weird at first, that’s OK. Sometimes it’s the weird ones that make the most difference. And soon, as our stillness inspires others to find stillness of their own, we won’t be the weird ones — we’ll be the ones with wisdom.</p>
<p>It takes strength to find stillness when the world around us is a chaos of activity, but it’s a strength that’s in us, and we need only to find it. Paradoxically, it’s stillness that will allow us to find that strength. Be still, look within, and it’ll be there.</p>
<h3>Finding Stillness</h3>
<p>It’s pretty simple, really, and you don’t need me to tell you to do this: to find stillness, you just need to take the time to sit still, every day that you can.</p>
<p>Find a time in the morning, when the world is still fairly quiet, to sit still. Don’t do anything, don’t plan your day, don’t check email, don’t eat. Just sit, and learn to be comfortable being still.</p>
<p>In practice, we’ll gradually find that comfort, and we’ll become good at it. If mornings are no good, find time during your lunch break, or after work, or just before you go to bed.</p>
<p>Find a place to be still. It can be a chair in your house, or a front porch, or the roof. It can be a park bench, or the beach, or a path in the woods. Let this be a ritual that you come to look forward to.</p>
<p>From this small place of stillness, calm will carry to the rest of your day, radiating like a soothing force. You’ll be calmer throughout the day, and learn to find little pockets of stillness everywhere: when you first start your workday, when you are ready to sit down and create, when you’re about to eat, when you are ready to exercise, during a meeting, even.</p>
<p>Practice, regularly. Practice, and learn. Practice stillness, and the stillness becomes a canvas upon which you can paint the masterpiece of your life.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.” <strong>~Ralph Waldo Emerson</strong></p></blockquote>
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<p>“Silence is a source of great strength.” <strong>~Lao Tzu </strong> </p>

<p>It’s a busy day, and you’re inundated by non-stop emails, text messages, phone calls, instant message requests, notifications, interruptions of all kinds. </p>

<p>The noise of the world is a dull roar that pervades every second of your life. It’s a rush of activity, a drain on your energy, a pull on your attention, until you no longer have the energy to pay attention or take action. </p>

<p>It’s an illness, this noise, this rush. It can literally make us sick. We become stressed, depressed, fat, burnt out, slain by the slings and arrows of technology. </p>

<p>The cure is simple: it’s stillness.<span> </span> </p>

<p>Take a minute out of your busy day to do this little exercise: pause in the middle of all you have to do, all that’s going on around you. Close your eyes, and sit still. Breathe in, and breathe out, and pay attention to your breath as it comes in and goes out. Just sit still, for about a minute. </p>

<p>This stillness might seem like inaction, which we’re taught is a bad thing. It’s lazy, it’s passive, it’s against our Puritan work ethic. And yet, this simple inaction can change our world. </p>

<p>Stillness calms us. It gives us a small oasis of quiet that allows us to hear our thoughts, that allows us to catch our breath, that gives us room to breathe at all. It is the antibody to the stress and rush we feel daily. </p>

<p>“Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.” <strong>~Lao Tzu </strong> </p>

<p>Stillness has a calming effect on the world around us as well. By becoming still, we cause others to pause, to pay attention. Our quiet also quiets others. We set the mood for those who work and otherwise interact with us. </p>

<p>When we rush and set a frenetic pace, it stresses others and inspires them to rush frenetically too. Stillness has the opposite effect. It slows the world down, allows us to focus, gives us time for contemplation, for what matters most. </p>

<p>It takes strength to be still when others rush. It takes courage to be different, to go against the stream. But while others might think us weird at first, that’s OK. Sometimes it’s the weird ones that make the most difference. And soon, as our stillness inspires others to find stillness of their own, we won’t be the weird ones — we’ll be the ones with wisdom. </p>

<p>It takes strength to find stillness when the world around us is a chaos of activity, but it’s a strength that’s in us, and we need only to find it. Paradoxically, it’s stillness that will allow us to find that strength. Be still, look within, and it’ll be there. </p>

<p>It’s pretty simple, really, and you don’t need me to tell you to do this: to find stillness, you just need to take the time to sit still, every day that you can. </p>

<p>Find a time in the morning, when the world is still fairly quiet, to sit still. Don’t do anything, don’t plan your day, don’t check email, don’t eat. Just sit, and learn to be comfortable being still. </p>

<p>In practice, we’ll gradually find that comfort, and we’ll become good at it. If mornings are no good, find time during your lunch break, or after work, or just before you go to bed. </p>

<p>Find a place to be still. It can be a chair in your house, or a front porch, or the roof. It can be a park bench, or the beach, or a path in the woods. Let this be a ritual that you come to look forward to. </p>

<p>From this small place of stillness, calm will carry to the rest of your day, radiating like a soothing force. You’ll be calmer throughout the day, and learn to find little pockets of stillness everywhere: when you first start your workday, when you are ready to sit down and create, when you’re about to eat, when you are ready to exercise, during a meeting, even. </p>

<p>Practice, regularly. Practice, and learn. Practice stillness, and the stillness becomes a canvas upon which you can paint the masterpiece of your life. </p>

<p>“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.” <strong>~Ralph Waldo Emerson </strong> </p>

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