Time for Stillness

I’ve been inspired by the term ‘Wintering’ this year from the book Wintering - The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May.

To shift into non-striving.

To let time be slow.

To allow.

To dwell in non-doing.

And to sit in that stillness.

It’s not easy for me to not DO. I was raised in a very DOING family. Our culture thrives on DOING. Therefore it feels like a new type of DOING - just to BE. 

BEING has connotations of laziness. These are all conditionings I have to grapple with and unDO. 

To resist scrolling on my phone. And sit in that emptiness of not being distracted. 

The teaching from the natural world during winter time is stillness and presence. Consciously shifting from speeding around, trying to get as much done as possible, going from one thing to the next, without a pause - to dwelling in the pause.

There’s a natural gift in slowing down—the spaces between incessant thinking. 

‘When the mind is momentarily free from preoccupations,

it becomes quiet.

If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it,

you find that it’s permeated with a light and a love

you have never known

and yet you recognize it at once

as your own nature.’

- Sri Narsargadat

Welcome to stillness. To embody the season of winter, rather than resist it, we honor stillness. It’s necessary. 

Author and life coach Martha Beck’s mantra is, ‘My name is Stillness.’

Try it, repeat it aloud or quietly, and see how it lands.  

My name is Stillness. 

There’s a quiet weight that feels so comforting to me - like I’ve landed.

Now that the holidays are nearly over, we can sink into stillness. 

This is the time for hibernation for many animals. I’m using the hibernation metaphor as a period of quiet stillness so new revelations can present themselves.

The energy of winter is known as the Yin of Yin when we can sit in darkness and allow answers to come without demanding or pushing.

To sit in the unknown. 

Wintertime is the time for transformation.

In traditional Chinese medicine, winter time corresponds to the element of water. Water’s quality is clear and travels downward and inward to conserve the chi in the roots of plants and the storage of chi in the kidneys of animals and humans. 

Even in the midst of doing, we can infuse BEING in all we do. 

What a relief. And, it’s a practice. 

Our society’s mindset and technology addiction keep us from BEING in stillness. Stillness is where our wisdom is accessed.  

So we need to intentionally create space for stillness, put down our phones, and be in the quiet, which is easiest to achieve in the winter.

A meditation to store chi in the kidneys, so we can comfortably BE is called Leading, Spiraling, and Packing Chi.

~ Inhale white light into the lungs

Exhale, visualize spiraling the chi

and packing it into the kidneys

by pressing the navel back to the spine.

If you'd like to learn more about cultivating a seasonal practice and join a community of like-minded yogis, consider the Master's Path or 300-hour Teacher Training.

This practice has been so helpful to those suffering from auto-immune issues and chronic pain and anxiety.

Enjoy BEING Still and merging with your breath.

Blessings

Maggie