Win By Being Not Doing
Our society celebrates doers. If we’re not constantly doing something, we must be lazy and not motivated enough. But here’s the thing.
Existential boredom is good. It’s good for the soul, because you actually can sort through your thoughts and create priorities. When the brain in under stimulated, the brains looks for stimulation boosting creativity. It enhances problem solving in a myriad of ways. Slowing down helps you check if the route you’re on in life is the one you actually want to be on. Slow down to the pace of nature. Maybe, like floating away on a tube in the river.
Ok, but does that mean we’re passive and lose all the momentum of the regular pace of live even if a forced quarantine comes upon us? Nope, in fact, we can use a stress management tactic to keep ourselves on the path to reskill and upskill and be ready for the time when our lives will be normal once again.
Our Current State of Busyness
But, let’s face it, real life is not naturally stimulating. In fact, it’s nothing but long stretches of boring loneliness with bursts of temporary excitement in groups of 2 people or more. The sooner we teach our children this the better.
Also, in juxtaposition, our day-to-day, monotonous lives pale in comparison to our online lives which are very unpredictable and exciting with plenty of likes and comments. That’s why so many of us are struggling “to find meaning in our boring lives” especially since 2011 with the massive intrusion of social media and its excitement in our lives.
Such is our modern life where taking some downtime is mistaken for laziness and lack of motivation. In our crazy busyness, we’re forgetting to remind ourselves that our bodies and minds need downtime. And that we don’t always have to be on the go to be productive.
Contentment Vs. Ambition
Our life at best is our continuous effort to navigate the thin line between presence and productivity. To traverse this world, we must balance deep contentment with our fierce ambitions. How can contentment be good for progress? If we’re not content with how things are, we will keep trying to fill the gaps of inadequacy we feel about ourselves.
And we will never start working on our most ambitious plans for our future. We must tell ourselves at any point, “This is my best so far, and I am going to work hard to build on it.” Thoughts like these empower us rather than bring us down.
When we sit down to ruminate on our life, we can use the silence to develop self-compassion for the beautiful journey we’re on. We can use our time to sit still to lead ourselves from compassion to understanding our competence in the different aspects of life. We can use our contentment of our rich life to drive us to a terrific pace of ambition.
What Happens When We Travel Inward
When we connect deeply with our true selves, we regain our power of intuition. When we punctuate our life with deep pockets of silence and no stimulation, we experience a series of coincidences. We start to withdraw from what others are doing.
We start to understand what truly matters to us. We start focusing on not material things, but the pursuit of the higher self. What’s more, seeking refuge in silence allows us to give grace to ourselves and to others around us.
Silence is the space you’re giving yourself to grow. Become introspective, we understand that we’re privileged. When we learn to think and slow down enough, we actually can make choices and decisions rapidly.
The Indian guru, Sri Ramana Maharishi, often used the Sanskrit word “mauna” when talking about the subject of silence. He was not indicating a mere absence of sound; rather, he was referring to the unmoving, silent, peaceful state of the Self that is beyond and prior to the antonyms of noise and physical quietness. For Sri Ramana, mauna was both the state of the enlightened being and the medium through which an awareness of the Self is transmitted.
Be Cheerfully, Gracefully, Powerfully SILENT
“Mounam chaivaasmi guhyaanaam jnaanam jnaanavataamaham”
I am the silence of the Deep ones and I am the wisdom of the wise. – Geeta Chapter 10.v.38
Let us not forget that the greatest forces in nature are all ever silent. Electricity has no noise. Heat is dumb. Flood creeps up silently in the night and sweeps away the sleeping villages, against which at that time man is helpless. The earthquake itself has only a frequency but no noise. The effects are noisy, but the force behind is ever silent. The silent power of Truth, in irresistible efficiency, is constantly at work – without strife, sound or confusion.
In Spiritual life, silence creates an atmosphere and enables the seeker to find access to an inner sanctuary entirely hidden from the restless and turbulent material world. Silence aids concentration, absorption.
The highest form of grace is silence. Be cheerfully silent, gracefully silent and powerfully silent.
Source: Chinmaya Mission
A Tribute To Silence
I ask you to celebrate silence not because I am disenchanted with chiming into modern life. I do not underestimate the importance of the quality of our closed relationships. Don’t withdraw from others, just from the busyness associated with the social context. Give others the benefit of meeting your authentic self. Where you were willing to walk a mile in their shoes earlier, now you will be creating a lifeline of deep gratitude. A willingness to say that they made a difference. You will start socializing to accommodate and adapt.
When you stop to see inward, there is a chance to change what you don’t like about yourself. You want to be like those birds, that sunrise. Don’t you? Enduring, predictable and unfiltered. Muse on reflection and self discovery. “Will the next moment be my best shot at life?”
Give yourself undivided attention. Observe that silence. Listen to it keenly. There is enough stimulation for all the knots to be untied. Buried inside the core of our solitude lies that vivid colorful imagination. When imagination opens, the possibilities are endless. Create your own Kilimanjaro, the mountain up in the clouds. Take time to realize those thoughts.
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