Stillness is the way back to yourself.
Stillness. Create more of it in your life. It’s the path to your core inner being.
Life can feel overwhelming at times, and with all the noise that goes around us, finding a moment to be still and connect with yourself can become tricky. Yet, creating space for it in your everyday life is so beneficial to our wellbeing.
Sharing my personal journey and practice to creating stillness in my daily life:
In 2019, this has been one of my biggest commitments. Although some days were better than many others, I kept up with it. Today, I’ll share some things helped me to stay committed.
At the beginning of this year, I committed to this intention: To enjoy every experience.
Although, this intention sounds simple, it is quite a big intention and commitment. It’s certainly not easy to enjoy every experience, especially when the experience presenting to you is stressful or challenging. Life has a way to challenge you, and your brain loves to keep you comfortable.
And, even though comfort feels good and safe, there’s something in you that longs for expansion and growth. This innate longing within us to expand and pursue limitlessness is where stillness plays a significant role.
To give you a little more context, one of my biggest challenges in life over the past 3 years has been to cope with anxiety. I have never felt more fear, doubt, and anxiety in my entire life compared to the last 3 years. I think it’s so because I’ve also challenged myself the most in these 3 years. I’ve grown the most in these years as well. Parts of me refused to give into this anxiety and have continued to move forward in order to not let it create my story. Parts of me struggled to keep going, and those were the parts that needed stillness the most.
Here are some things that created this stillness and truly kept me committed to enjoying all experiences of 2019 so far:
Honouring all parts of you.
Including the highly sensitive ones, the warrior like side that craves to take control and push against the grain, and the vulnerable parts that feel scary and overwhelming.
Silent Meditation.
Giving yourself space to connect with yourself. Sticking to silence especially when there are lots of thought clouds.
Allowing yourself to sit in silence imperfectly, until it becomes more natural and easeful.
Learning not to be the fuel to these thoughts, and instead simply allowing each to come up, and diffuse into space.
Create and stick to a routine that’s practical, simple, and not overwhelming.
Routine didn’t come naturally to me, because I dislike rigidity and redundancy. However, creating a routine that creates coherence and groundedness is not rigid, in fact, my morning routine has been instrumental in soothing overwhelm and healing my anxiety.
How I start my mornings has allowed me to create and experience inner stillness despite what the external experiences may bring.
The results? Here are just a few of many:
Less reactivity, more responsiveness to life from joy, authenticity, and openness.
Increased Self-trust.
Lessening of anxiety and bouncing back from anxiety faster on days that were extra challenging.
More productivity in my work, and in personal life.
More belief and clarity in the purpose I am pursuing.
The key has been self-awareness and taking action.
Remaining aware of what is needed has allowed me to create and stick to a daily routine - especially my morning routine - that has supported me, my business, and my healing with anxiety.
Here are some keys I want to share with you in the hopes that you too can find these helpful:
1. Sleep
Get a good night’s sleep. Identify how many hours is enough for you.
This is what has been effective for me: Getting up at the same time everyday (I wake up everyday between 4:30 - 5:30 am).
The key to feeling sleepy and falling asleep on time has been to get up early. This was tricky in the beginning because I had trouble falling asleep earlier, but waking up early consistently helped my system go to sleep earlier. This further helped waking up earlier with ease. Essentially, this has helped reset my sleep cycle to my normal.
2. Prep your day by tending to your mind, body, and spirit.
Doing something for your mind, body and spirit is essential to prepping the foundation of your day. So, no matter what may come your way, you must take care of your core inner being. You’d be surprised to find out, how much this helps you stay grounded vs. getting easily distracted.
Yoga has been a great way for me to recalibrate my inner core being. Personally, I stick to a foundational yoga sequence - the Sun Salutation ( Surya-Namaskar). I must add that this has allowed more flexibility in my mental, emotional and physical processes. It has also recalibrated my body rhythms such as: sleeping/waking, eating, and bodily awareness.
Shower right after yoga, or sometimes before yoga. Showering first thing in the morning has been a great way for me to wake up and stay aware during my meditation instead of falling asleep during it. Our brain is in an interesting state of wakefulness and sleep before sunrise, and this is a key time to rebuild subconscious patterns of your mind.
Meditation and Journaling:
Again, keep it simple. You don’t need to have a complex meditative practice. All you need is your body, your breath, and your willingness.
Silent meditation has been key for me during the mornings. I do a 20 minute silent meditation where I allow myself to sit still, and observe life around me through my breath and awareness. During this time if my mind starts wandering or feels distracted by my physical body, sounds, or other things around me, I simply respond to it through awareness and my breath. Out of those 20 minutes, I focus 3 minutes specifically on a breathing pattern e.g. Alternate nostril breathing. This practice has boosted my awareness of self, my energy and my surroundings. Almost all the times insights up come while I meditate that help me deal with on-going conflicts, challenges or confusions in life. I think this is when you give your intuitive; inner knowingness space and stillness to communicate with your clearly.
After this, I journal. Doing this right after my meditation has been key in documenting and working through things that require resolution, healing and growth. My journal is a documentation of my experiences - both inner and outer. My journaling is also a conversation with the Universe so it’s always addressed to it . I write things I am grateful for, which helps engage with my work and day from a place of having things instead of feeling lack of things. I often create an affirmation through a phrase or a word.
Reading and consuming content that feeds nourishment to your soul and mindset.
It’s important to be conscious of what you consume ( not just in terms of food) but the content you consume through books, social media, or TV. I make a conscious effort to be mindful of the content I consume. I normally gravitate towards books that explore ancient spiritual wisdom. I turn to Guru Granth Sahib, Rumi’s compositions, Vedic and Yogic philosophy. I’ll often have a book of short verses, poetry or quotes to flip through. Many times, I take what I read and connect it to my day I am about to start. I do this through a question or setting of an intention.
You don’t have to do what I do, but I hope this gives you enough information to create a practice or a routine to create stillness in your day. Creating this inner stillness is KEY to guiding yourself back to your heart-home; back to yourself; your core; your essence.
All the answers we seek are within us, and stillness is a way for us to reach that place which contains all our answers.
Wishing you peace, stillness, and lots of inner and outer success,
Harjot Mann, MD
Mindset & Leadership Coach
P.s. I love hearing from you, and connecting, so don’t forget to write to me here.