Last week I met with my friend Linda for coffee. She gifted me a little book called, The Art of Stillness – Adventures in Going Nowhere.
Based on a Ted talk by travel writer, Pico Iyer, he says, “In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than slowing down. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.”
I read this 66-page book in one sitting, with the mistress of stillness herself, resting beside me — Miss Gidget. Something about each of my dogs has really stood out for me of what they brought to my life, and I continue to see how Gidget is my reminder to slow down when life can feel like it is going too fast.
But the book is a beautiful reminder too. Iyer shares in his book something he learned from Leonard Cohen about stillness and that “it isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.”
I’ve also thought more about how we are all so reactive to life, which is coming up in a 4-week course I’m in. We’ve gotten so addicted to thinking we just have to check our email and/or social media pages the minute we get up. Then we find ourselves in a reactive spin, sometimes the whole day gone before we know it.
We don’t remember what it is like to be still and find it hard to even think about being still because it feels then like we are doing nothing and we are getting nowhere. I don’t know about you, but it just made my heart race writing these last two paragraphs as if in an adrenaline rush.
Reading Iver’s book and being in the on line course, I’m finding my way back to what it is that matters most to me. Email and social media can wait. Writing for my blog first, or doing a project I’m excited about, is what matters to me and brings me joy. And interestingly enough, when my day plays out in this way, I find so much more stillness in all that I do.
Gidget, my class, and the book have been great gifts to me lately, as I see gold in slowing down and incorporating more stillness again into my daily life. Because honestly, when I do, I feel more alive and yes, even more productive.
In case I have momentarily relapses, all I need do is look over my shoulder when sitting at my writing desk, and observe the Mistress of Stillness curled up in her bed, and as if fairy dust sprinkles down from the ceiling, it puts me back in a state of calm and peace.