How long can you sit still? I’ve tried it and must confess that I can’t do it longer than a few minutes. My mind is racing, making my to-do lists, estimating how much time it will take to complete my tasks, and although I am sitting in the middle of the floor, everything quiet around me, my mind won’t shut-up for even a few seconds. This restlessness is my shadow, following me around wherever I go. When I am writing, I am thinking about the groceries I need to get, the laundry that needs to be folded, and the dinner that isn’t going to cook itself. When I am doing the stay-at-home mom and wife duties, I am worried that I am not writing enough. I am never in the moment. I am always two or three moments ahead.
I am also multitasking, something that the efficiency pundits discourage, because it means you aren’t really completing any task very well. I am making my grocery list, talking on the phone, and checking my e-mail on my computer. The technology around me doesn’t help either. With the advent of phones that do just about everything, I am always checking my facebook updates, new emails, and text messages. If I am at home, I am checking websites on my computer, everything from MSNBC to blogs that I like to regularly visit.
It is, for lack of better words, mind clutter. There is so much talk in the press about “de-cluttering” the environment we live in, but little attention is directed to reducing our mind clutter. I think most of us don’t know where to begin. For me, I’ve tried to meditate, but I get discouraged because I can’t get to that quiet place quick enough. I’ve tried yoga, deemed it too slow for my taste, my mind looking at the exit door, wondering when I can go home.
There isn’t an easy solution here and I realize that. The concept of stillness is something deep, something that transcends us from the physical to the mental to the metaphysical, a feeling of nothingness. In writing this post, I promised myself, that today, sometime, I will start with one minute of stillness, one moment of being in that moment. I challenge you to do the same. Sit down. Pause. Take a breath. Just for one minute.
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How do you get to your quiet place? Any advice? Please share your thoughts. We could all learn to be a little more quiet.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
Good luck with your one minute of stillness! I hope you find more.
Here’s something I learned that really helped me out. Meditation doesn’t mean you have to stop all thoughts. Let them march by like floats in a parade… you wouldn’t run after and jump onto a float as it passed you by, right?
The key of meditation is to stop ACTING on all your thoughts and redirecting your mind back to one focus. Here’s a simple example: Next time you notice that your nose itches, don’t scratch it….
Sarjita,
Thanks for the advice. Sounds like you have given meditation some real thought and practice. Good for you. I hope to get more than a minute – someday! Thanks for the comment, Rudri
Give yoga a chance. Your mind, body, and soul will thank you. Just give it a “moment.”