Stillness in meditation is simply being present in a peaceful and non-stimulating environment. If you’re like most people, you’re not taking the time to experience real stillness on a regular basis.
Most people are resistant to the idea of stillness for a couple of reasons:
• They believe they don’t have the time.
• They’re addicted to distractions and don’t want to be alone with their thoughts.
See why practicing stillness in meditation is worthy of your time:
1. A more accurate perspective. When you’re able to disengage for a few minutes, you can get away from your negative thoughts. You can step away from your life for a minute, and you have a better chance of seeing the truth. You’re able to break away from your mental habits and experience increased clarity.
2. Your intuition can be heard. You can’t hear your intuition if you’re never still. It might be screaming at you, but you’re completely oblivious to what it’s trying to tell you. You become wiser if you experience stillness in meditation on a regular basis.
3. Less stress. When your mind gets a break from your busy day, you experience less stress. Of course, this enhances your sleep and overall physical and mental health.
Beautiful Guided Meditation For Relaxation and Healing Your Mind and Body
4. Enhances your self-awareness. Stillness in meditation allows you to check-in with yourself. You become more aware of your thoughts, aches and pains, and emotions. Instead of being engrossed in your habitual thoughts, you have the time and perspective to become more aware of yourself.
Stillness has many benefits that can greatly add to the quality of your life. If you’re never still, you’re missing out on a lot. It’s easy to miss all the options and opportunities available to you if you never lift your head up above the noise. Stillness in meditation requires some time, but it’s time well spent.
Stillness in meditation can be accomplished in different ways:
1. Meditate daily if not more. Meditation is the most obvious way to practice effective stillness in meditation, but it’s certainly not the only option. Meditation is a simple, but challenging, skill to master. Twenty minutes of meditation each day is an awesome way to practice stillness on a regular basis.
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2. Turn off all of your devices and just sit, stand, or walk. Disengage from your computer, smartphone, TV, or other devices for a few minutes. Just look out the window, or just stare at the wall, or close your eyes for a few minutes. Focus on what you see, or just observe your breathing.
◦ Strive to keep your thoughts to a minimum. Instead, focus on the information your senses are providing. What do you see, hear, smell, and feel?
◦ Just a few minutes each hour can make a huge difference.
3. Spend time in nature. Cut yourself off from other people and anything manmade. Get out there with the trees, plants, and animals. Just enjoy your surroundings and give your brain a break for as much time as you can spare.
4. Learn how to be mindful. Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere. You can be mindful on the subway or in a business meeting. Keep your thoughts and attention on what you’re doing and your surroundings. Avoid daydreaming, thinking about the past or the future, or anything that isn’t relevant to what you’re doing at the moment.
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◦ An overly stimulating environment can prevent the experience of true stillness in meditation, but it can greatly turn down the impact of the activity happening around you.
5 . Schedule a little stillness into your life each and every day. It’s that important. You might believe you don’t have time for stillness, but that’s the ultimate sign that you desperately need it.
Be still each day for as much time as you can spare. Your life will be changed in powerful ways.
How To Tame Intrusive Thoughts During Stillness In Meditation Session
Do you sometimes feel like your thoughts are beyond your control, and some of them make you uncomfortable? If so, you can relax. Intrusive thoughts are very common and usually harmless.
One study reported by Psychology Today asked volunteers to talk about what goes through their minds. They found that the average participant had about 500 unintentional thoughts each day, and about 30% were socially unacceptable or downright shocking.
You can learn to feel more at ease even when your mind takes a little dark turn. Discover how stillness in meditation techniques and other self-help methods can tame intrusive thoughts.
Meditating to Tame Intrusive Thoughts:
1. Let go of judgments. Most of your discomfort probably comes from resisting what’s on your mind rather than from the thought itself. With regular practice, mindfulness meditation can train you to observe and accept your thoughts.
2. Focus on your breath. Paying attention to your breath keeps you in the present moment. You learn to distinguish between you and your passing thoughts.
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3. Slow down. Most intrusive thoughts last 14 seconds or less. Patiently waiting them out may make them pass even quicker.
Other DIY Methods for Taming Intrusive Thoughts:
1. Avoid suppression. Trying to avoid intrusive thoughts usually backfires. It’s like the famous Harvard experiment that asked subjects to stop thinking about polar bears and wound up making it difficult to think about anything else.
2. Change your expectations. Dreading unwelcome thoughts also reinforces them. Try to view them as a routine part of daily life.
3. Change the script. If you tend to replay unpleasant events, give yourself something more pleasant and productive to think about. Forget about office politics and focus on what to eat for dinner.
4. Stay on task. Do you avoid certain activities because they trigger thoughts you find difficult to manage? You may be able to free yourself from such limitations by planning more constructive approaches. Develop more compassion for someone you disagree with using stillness in meditation techniques instead of shutting them out.
5. Try to disengage. Depending on your personality and preferences, you may want to minimize your involvement with involuntary thoughts. Consider them irrelevant and carry on with what you’re doing.
6. Think it through. On the other hand, you may feel more relief when you face things head-on. Write your thoughts down or talk them over with someone you trust if you find that helpful and not distressing.
7. Rest and relax. It’s natural for your mind to wander, but you may feel like it’s getting too much exercise. In addition to stillness in meditation techniques, use relaxation methods like listening to soft music and taking a long walk.
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Professional Treatment for Intrusive Thoughts:
1. See your doctor. While involuntary thoughts usually have no significant effects, they may be more troubling for you. That’s especially true if you have certain conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, or depression. Let your physician know about any symptoms that are disrupting your life.
2. Talk with a therapist. Cognitive behavior and other talk therapies can be highly effective for dealing with intrusive thoughts. Ask your doctor for a referral or consult a directory such as the American Psychological Association’s Locator Service.
3. Take medication. In some cases, your doctor may also recommend medications to manage symptoms on a temporary or longer-term basis. These drugs may include antidepressants such as Anafranil or Prozac.
Intrusive thoughts will probably continue to pop into your head, but you can live more comfortably with them through learning stillness in meditation techniques and other simple techniques. If you need more help, talk with your doctor to find the treatment and relief you need.
