The Power of Stillness: Listening To Your Inner Voice
When was the last time you had a moment of silence?
If you live in the city as I do, you probably are surrounded by massive advertising and urban buzz coming everywhere.
Even when we are at home using our phones we are bombarded with incessant information coming from emails, social media, online entertainment services, etc.
According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego, people are every day inundated with the equivalent amount of 34 Gb of information, a sufficient quantity to overload a laptop within a week.
That’s a lot of information. However, I’m not saying we have to stop consuming and receiving information because it’s bad or driving us crazy (ok, maybe a little bit)
What is the main consequence of this nonstop external stimuli?
We lose the ability of attention and focus on self-awareness. It becomes difficult to make time for reflection. We slowly become blind to the fact that each one of us, deep down, has a real super power: Stillness.
And the good news is that we can access stillness at every moment because it’s the essence of who we are.
Through the practice of meditation you can make a pause of everything that’s happening outside and go inside. Through your breath, which is the anchor to center yourself, you can enter that place of stillness.
With consistent practice you can start hearing that inner voice, and realized it was always waiting for you to listen. That voice is wise and holds the answer and solution to almost every doubt and problem you may have.
We live in a world where being still is against productivity. What will I gain from sitting and doing nothing? There’s no visible compensation. That’s because we live in a capitalist society where everything we do must be a means to an end. There must be an apparent reward and win, if not is useless.
We have to understand that stillness is one of the most powerful tools we possess. It’s a coming back to who we are in essence and a space to connect with Infinite Intelligence, God, Spirit or a moment to find peace.
I have experienced that once I started prioritizing meditation, and found those quite moments, I can actually perform better in all my tasks. I am more compassionate with everyone, not just my loved ones. My attention is better. I can handle hard situations more easily, and actually have really creative ideas after a period of stillness and silence!
‘Being still activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions”. (Eckhart Tolle in “Stillness Speaks”)
