5 Ways to Cultivate the Silence Within
Many of us spend our lives searching for inner peace. We look for it in our thoughts, our surroundings, perhaps in the food that we eat, the people who we choose to be with; however, we can’t look for peace outside and assimilate it within us at the same time. We have to create a silence within us for peace to reside, and we have to look at life from the vantage point of this silence. Only then can we be in a state of bliss.
So here are five ways to cultivate the silence within:
1. Spend five minutes every day observing your thoughts. Make an effort during these five minutes to sit in non-judgment. Let your thoughts pass through your mind. Also, make an effort to avoid reliving the emotions brought about by these thoughts, be they positive or negative.
2. Start your day before those in your house do. Even if it’s just fifteen minutes early, spend those first fifteen minutes of the day with yourself. Water your plants. Drink lukewarm lemon and honey water. Stretch. Smile. Read. Making this daily commitment will help you to nurture a more fulfilling relationship with yourself, and this will ensure a better quality day and life.
3. Pursue an extra-curricular activity with passion. If you’ve always wanted to learn photography, do so now. If you’ve always wanted to learn krav maga, do so now. If you’ve always wanted to start a yoga practice, start now. Making time and putting in the effort to pursue something you’ve been putting off creates a behavioral pattern which tells you that what you want to do can be fulfilling, and enables you to put yourself first.
4. Accept the situation and work around it. You might not like your job, or your neighbor or your current haircut, but until you can change it, your only choice is to deal with it. So deal with it.
5. Breathe deeply. Breathe whether you are stressed, overwhelmed, happy, annoyed, joyful, irritated, elated, blissful, worried, tired, energetic, optimistic, pessimistic, disappointed, fascinated or delighted. Always breathe.
About the Author
Meditation and Mindfulness; Methods for Lasting Peace
Mindfulness is an essential and useful pathway that leads to peacefulness. It isn’t rocket science, it doesn’t require a trendy workshop, and it doesn’t require that you live in an ashram.
“Each place is the right place. The place where I now am can be a sacred space.”
– Ravi Ravindra
What is Mindfulness?
The most basic definition of mindfulness might be the act of paying attention to the things that you are experiencing, and then choosing peacefulness in relation to every action, person, thought, feeling, and response.
Mindfulness in its purest form has the following characteristics:
- Being fully present to what’s happening in this moment
- Leaving the past in the past
- Letting fantasies of the future dissolve
- Refraining from self-judgment and judging others
- Keeping emotions in-check
- Responding instead of reacting
- Strengthening our connection to our core selves
