Stillness in the chaos

It’s one thing to know that I need stillness, to talk about it, to even teach it. It is another to actually integrate it into my life. We live in a small house with a lot of people. No one really has their own space. We often joke that the dog’s crate gives her more personal square footage than the rest of us. So creating space to feel still, calm and quiet is a constant challenge.

What I have learned over this past year of being together more than ever, is that stillness doesn’t require square footage. Stillness comes from within. Stillness is is a choice. It is created and cultivated.

I used to think that in order to be still I needed a special room for prayer, yoga and meditation. If only I had that room, THEN I would feel centered each day. But the reality is that a room does not create calm or stillness. Real stillness, of one’s mind, is not dependent on anything external. Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of external obstacles that seem to challenge the ability to be still, but in reality the real obstacle is our mindset.

When things feel chaotic, overly busy, packed, jammed, stressed, it doesn’t feel possible to create some space. When the kids are quarantined yet again and I have to teach a class online and the dog needs a walk and the piano needs to be practiced it can be challenging to choose stillness. There are so many moving parts calling for my attention. Here is where the gift of yoga shines. Yoga is about the union of opposites to open us up to more. Flex here, lengthen there — root down here, rise up there — twist here, lift there — and in the midst of all of that we open, we see more clearly, we hear more deeply and we create a stillness within a moving world.

When the chaos of my busy house feels like too much, I have learned that the best thing I can do for myself is also the simplest. Go back to the breath. Pause . . . breathe in . . . breathe out . . . breathe in . . . breathe out.

Wishing you a bit of stillness this day.