Benefits of cultivating Inner Stillness

What do you mean by 'Inner Stillness?'

If we become used to going though life at a high pace, our minds and bodies are on overdrive and we lose presence of the 'now'. We may not connect to the pressure this puts on our nervous system, yet over time, if we keep overriding ourselves, it can poorly effect our physical and mental well-being. We can find ourselves under-resourced, leaving us feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, more easily irritated and generally misaligned.

What can Inner Stillness offer us?

1) Presence- we bring our focus to the present moment and put a pause on flitting back and forth between the past and the future; both of which are not in our control.

2) Slowing down of the mind and body-when we become present, we slow our thoughts and this in turn slows our physiological state.

3) Physiological and emotional regulation- When we create that 'pause' we create opportunity for our automatic nervous system to do what it's really good at- to regulate us and return us to internal stability.

4) Space to feel what needs to be felt- When we are overriding our nervous system, our body doesn't believe we are safe. We operate out of 'survival', we're not present and often our emotions won't get to complete their cycle. That energy needs space and presence to complete. When we can cultivate inner stillness, we open up the opportunity for unprocessed emotions to surface and be allowed their completion.

5) Space to listen to our Inner wisdom- When we are operating out of survival we hear our fear voice/analytical mind over our inner wisdom. When we slow down, regulate, allow our emotions to be processed, we become open to hear what needs to come though to us.

6) Space for inspiration- It can be within our inner stillness that new ideas take form, and things we had been struggling with, suddenly fall into place.

How and when to use Inner Stillness?

The most valuable thing we can do for ourselves in times of high intensity situations, is to create a 'pause' to regulate emotionally and physiologically before making our next move/decision. Inner stillness offers us this 'pause,' and cultivating it as a consistent practice outside of 'stress', is key. It's difficult to guide our body to pause when it wants to react, if we haven't practised doing so (many times) beforehand.

Start exploring ways of guiding your body to pause and find that inner stillness. Get curious about what works for you, and what doesn't, (we are all different,) and have fun with it! Once you find ways that work for you, be consistent with your practice. Just like a muscle, you'll have to keep working it to develop its capacity to hold you in those times you need it to.

Important to note; I haven't given examples of what an Inner stillness practise might look like, because that journey of discovery is unique for each of us. For some it might mean becoming physically still, whilst for others movement may be the gateway to get there. It has to be your own 'way'.