Self-Development | Guidance | Spiritual Arts
How the Beauty of Stillness Can Improve Your Life Right Now
The smallest moments can make the biggest differences
“No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen.” Proverb
Hello, beloved readers and writers!
I hope you’ve had a beautiful week, or at least a week with some beauty in it.
While meditating this morning, something came to me…a message about what I needed to share with you today. My previous idea was shoved aside instantly, and this is what I was guided to offer:
Listen. Stop making any noise at all for a moment and just listen.
What do you hear?
Bustling traffic and sirens? Children giggling or arguing about whose turn it is? Office sounds, phones ringing, fingers on keyboards? Someone griping, another needing more coffee, music playing?
Listen a little more closely. Television droning, voices in a nearby room, birds outside? Ticking clock, barking dog, faint church bells?
Close your eyes and listen again. Never mind all of those external sounds. Whatever you’re hearing in your environment, check it off the list as “noticed” and listen again.
Listen to the sound of your breath. Focus on its gentleness, its evenness, in… and out… in… and out… Feel yourself relax as you sit, eyes closed, listening to that beautiful, hypnotic rhythm.
Listen to your body. Tune in and listen to what it’s telling you. Does something ache? Is something sore? If so, is there a message with that pain? Is your body tense and tight or is it comfortable and relaxed?
If you’re feeling tense and wound up, focus again on your breath. Close your eyes and just for a few moments, pay attention to nothing but your breath. Imagine that you’re inhaling peaceful energy that floods your whole being and as you exhale, see all the tension and worry flowing out of you.
Keeping your eyes closed, push aside the noise, push aside the work, just for a few moments. There is only your gentle breath, filling you with peace and relieving you of the tension. Breath… after breath… after breath…
After a minute or two, listen to your body again. Listen to yourself. In this settled state, what little bits of wisdom are coming to you?Your “Higher Self” is always speaking to you, but you can only hear it when you are calm and receptive.
You don’t have to have a half-hour meditation to achieve that state. You don’t have to sit in the lotus position and get leg cramps while chanting “Ommmmmm”. It takes only a moment or two to ignore the external noise of life and focus on going inward, if for no other reason than to enjoy the stillness it brings.
Not only will you feel a sense of peace and calm in those brief moments of stillness, doing this every now and then throughout a busy day can help to keep your stress levels down. It helps to keep you focused and relaxed as you make your way through the list of things you must get done. It makes it easier to cope with the rush and noise of a hectic life.
And in that stillness, if you check in and ask yourself if there’s anything you need to know, or ask about a particular situation that’s troubling you, answers will come. Sometimes immediately, sometimes not. They might hit you sometime later while washing dishes or fixing your car or in the shower. But you’ll never hear them if you don’t tune out the noise, tune in to the stillness, and listen.
It can take 30 seconds. It can take a minute or two. Doing a handful of these mini-meditations every day can make a world of difference to your overall sense of peace and relaxation, to keeping you focused, and to allowing you to hear the answers that you can only get from the wisdom of your Higher Self.
And all you have to do is…listen.
The invitation: Do the above suggested “listening” and tuning in…ask your Higher Self what you need to know or just enjoy the stillness and discover the gifts in the experience. I would love to see your stories and poems on what comes of your mindful listening and tuning in…
Celebrating Hope, Healing and Humour with 115 followers!
Shorties But Goodies with172 followers!
Miss Witchy is still at 38, but she’s happy because I told her it’s a beautiful number in numerology. It breaks down to 11, one of the Master Numbers. It is the Master Illuminator, meant “to show people the way.”
And of course, her mission is “to light up the world with hope, healing and humour.” Seems to me she’s illuminating pretty well these days, so 38 is providing a wonderful Master energy for our charming little friend.
She’s especially excited about her contribution to today’s Newsletterish, but as always, you’ll have to wait till the end! Keep reading…!
As always, we had excellent submissions in the past week! I love the variety of topics and writing styles that we see here! We are so blessed to have such a range of interests in our beloved Pub Family!
Here are the week’s gifts to HHH and SBG:
Kris Bedenian has written THE sweetest, short piece!! It’s a lovely, heartfelt message to her fellow readers and writers. Please take a peek; it’ll warm your heart!
…and she wonders…are you a doughnut or a bagel? (I’m definitely a bagel!)
She’s also got us thinking about apple pie…and an important message about hope!
Bernie Pullen shares a heartfelt story of hope:
Carrie Kolar wants to keep gross things out of people’s pants
Slow train shares an interesting piece on an important role played by our imaginations…
Christina shares a personal story about the power of words in her own life:
She also asks a powerful question of parents in this insightful, important, short piece:
Trista Signe Ainsworth shares a super short but truly beautiful story with an inspiring reminder all of us can appreciate. Please take a look!
Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox has written a most interesting and entertaining piece that you will love!
Loren Lieberthal tells a tale that had me holding my breath at one stage — the suspense…the “What’s going to happen next?!”…a wonderful story of unexpected gifts:
Rhea Anglesey has discovered that Barak Obama is a Medium writer — and she has a burning question!
Shameem Anwar offers an inspiring story to help you cope with your burdens:
Isabel Young reminds us of an important message that is all too easily forgotten:
After I mentioned last week that our beloved Witchy didn’t have any new love on her pub in the previous week, Jimmy Misner Jr. did his best to fix that situation. On a mission to introduce her to a wider audience, he wrote this sweet piece:
Witchy and I are deeply grateful for your kind efforts, Jimmy! 💜💜💜
A huge “Thank you!” to our beautiful Pub Family for your excellent submissions and your ongoing support of our community. I love watching it grow and seeing connections building amongst our members. So many blessings!
And now…Witchy would love to share a little snippet from her new life in England:
Deepest gratitude to our Pub Family members:
Dr Andrea Polzer Kris Bedenian Rodney Brazier Patti Murray Voncannon Carrie Kolar Croix Sather Deb Fiore Dina Alexander DL Nemeril Donnette Anglin, Loren Lieberthal Jimmy Misner Jr. Judy Millar Julie Gaeta Pene Hodge Karen Schwartz James Knight Laura Izquierdo pockett dessert Dr. Preeti Singh Radhika Iyer Sam Branstner Sharon Sayler, Author Umme Salma Susie Kearley Tamil T Mann Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles Lion~ Wendy S. Bradfield Yana Bostongirl Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox Suma Narayan Penny Walsh Shameem Anwar Irene Fassler Sandy Peckinpah Trista Signe Ainsworth Slow train A.H. Mehr Alex Frederickson Ashley Nicole B.R. Shenoy Carolyn Hastings Christina Christine Vann, MSc. Ellie Jacobson ✍🏻 The Soulful Scribbler Isabel Young Kaz Rochford Nia Simone McLeod Nicole Hilbig Patricia Wright Pam Winter Rachella Angel Page Jodian Marie Thomas, MS, Bsc, Asc L Burton Muhammad Abdullah Kate Aries Danielle Hestand Sahil Patel Jessica Rabel Sharing Words Malky McEwan Belinda Castle Barbara Cook Tyra Jaide Megan Llorente Eko BP Drashti Shroff Evergreen Eden Bernie Pullen Hamsalekha Rhea Anglesey CARMEN F MICSA Robin Oakman Mary Vraa Libby Shively McAvoy Kristina God Niall Leah Debbra Lupien, Voice of the Akashic Records Toya Qualls-Barnette June Kirri Vashni Stories Dawn :) Divya Goswami BichoDoMato Evon
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