The Stillness of Flow

The Stillness of Flow

Do you ever ask yourself, “Why does she go on and on about being present and aware”? Do you ever wonder what the heck I’m talking about when I talk about stillness? Or feeling peaceful?

It’s all about the insides, baby!

My overarching goal is to be present, aware, and basically living my natural life most of the time. Simple. Why am I peaceful? Why do I flow with life? What makes it all so easy?

When I am feeling sad, or scared, or pissed off, I am not present; I am saying “no” to my life. These emotions are all about resisting what is. I am  sad that I lost something I wanted to keep, or gained something I didn’t, fear and anger are also about that; the world not being the way I think it should be. If this is where I am coming from, it will be an endless, unhappy battle I will lose over and over.

When I choose to be present in my life, to allow the flow, I can let things be as they are. I stop fighting what is.

Now, I have some energy. Now, I have some clarity. Now, I am choosing my natural life.

Why am I peaceful? Why am I relaxed? Why am I in harmony with my life?

In this moment, my life is perfect. In this moment, I am perfect. In this moment, I can relax.

There is a huge difference between living in the moment, and for the moment. For the moment tends to be the result of not-so-good choices that can often leave us feeling sick, or heartsick, angry, uncomfortable, apologetic, well, I know you never do this stuff, but, sadly, I still do.

And then I remember that peaceful is always a few thoughts away. Isn’t that amazing? I can be in such a funk, remember to choose peaceful, and often minutes later, I can be back to feeling like my own sweet self.

And I have reconnected with the stillness at my core. And here’s what that does, that connection. It makes me notice that at any given moment, I am doing one thing. I may have ten windows open on my computer, all wanting some kind of attention, but in this moment, all I can do is one thing. Given how much I get done in a day, that is a very nice, comforting thought, one that can send me right to peaceful, still.

When I think of the word stillness, I tend to think of a forest for some reason. Now a forest is a hugely active place. Trees may look like they are just hanging out, but there is a lot happening like making oxygen and circulating sap. There is rotten vegetation full of happy microbes chomping away at stuff, and then the larger life forms all busy doing what they do. Being present in all that, being present in our lives, experiencing the stillness, isn’t about shutting ourselves away in a sensory deprivation tank, but rather about choosing to be present in the middle of our cuckoo lives, flowing with what is, unchoosing our resistance, recognizing that we do one thing at a moment, and so we can do that one thing as best we can, we choose excellence, we choose harmony, we choose accord.

How have I changed from fighting it all to relaxing into the stillness of flow?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 04302014

Why am I relaxed? How do I choose to be present? What makes me feel harmonious?

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Stillness of a Spinning Top

Stillness of a Spinning Top

One of my favorite words these days is “stillness.” One of my favorite pastimes these days is going to stillness. I really like it because for so much of my life, stillness was just a theoretical concept.

I have a giant mural of the heart of a forest in my bathroom. I know, kinda dorky, but I get that feeling when I look at it, even though I know how noisy forests can be. Stillness isn’t about quiet.

On my porch, during rush hour, with the river of traffic, and sirens, and horns, and helicopters. Stillness isn’t about a lack of activity.

In the midst of your craziest day, running errands, playing taxi, meeting after meeting, loved ones in need, dinner, laundry, more and more and more. Stillness isn’t about stopping.

Stillness, like peace, like happiness, is inside us. It may be deep, but, baby, it’s there. All you have to do is go there.

Sometimes the path is clear, sometimes the path is barely discernible, but it’s there, nonetheless. Taking the time to find it may seem daunting, a lot of the best things are. And once you find it, it’s yours.

Stillness also isn’t always about going deep inside, sometimes it’s about coming up for air, so to speak, allowing our internal turbulence to fend for itself without our needing to be there, tending it.

Meditation is one way. And there are so many different ways to meditate. I lead guided meditations that produce a state of aware sleep. I practice silent meditation, zen meditation, and on my porch, I practice what I think of as open meditation, where I am aware of my externals, all the sights and sounds and smells and experiences that sitting on the porch brings me.

If the idea of stillness within the busy seems like a contradiction, think of a spinning top, zipping round and round so fast that it looks still.

Stillness happens when we let go of conflict, discord, and negative moral or emotional judgments. Stillness happens when we surrender into the flow of our life, even if that life is spinning like a top.

One of my favorite examples was during my qigong practice, when I found myself spinning like a top. As I watched me spin from the inside, I wondered about dizzy. Then, I realized that “I” was still, while my body swirled around me. My body spun like that for several minutes, and when it stopped, I, the still, inside I, opened my eyes, and the room spun visually for a while, but I was still. Freaky weirdo stuff, I tells ya. Still.

When I choose the path to stillness, I choose to unchoose a lot of things. I choose to be patient, gentle and kind with myself, but also to be firm about my choices. I choose to shed another layer of my fixed delusions. I choose to trust, to let my life flow, and I choose to believe that life is good. I choose to believe that, whatever my circumstances, I can find my place of peace, of stillness, of happiness.

How have I changed from living in discord to feeling harmonious?

(c) Pam Guthrie all rights reserved 03/07/2014

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Stillness

Stillness

Who are we? Well, I guess I mean, who am I? And, right off the top, I think of the person who owns the hands and mind that is writing to you write now, but that’s not really what I mean at all.

I’m going deep, fellow philosophers, so grab your oxygen tanks and let’s dive in!

I talk a lot about our natural life, and the perfect self. I don’t talk about the perfect self in the abstract. I have experienced it, the first time way back in the day, when I was sitting around, alone, fantasizing ways to commit suicide (oh, yeah, I was a barrel of laughs.)

A feeling came upon me, and there I was, at the heart, at the core, of perfect self. Perfectly calm, perfectly happy, no worries, no anxiety, no pain. Inhaling joy, exhaling joy. I felt infinite, and connected, and whole, completely a part of everything. Perfect self.

I have no idea how long the experience lasted, but it totally changed my life. Because, whenever I remembered to think of it, there it was, at my core, my perfect self, my point of stillness in the chaos, misery, and suffering that was my life.

I saw all the crud I had accreted around it, like a pearl covered in nasty, crusty crap. All I had to do was get rid of the crap. And there you have my philosophy in a nutshell.

Who I am is my perfect self. What I do is chip away at the crusty gunk around it. Perhaps my perfect self, and yours, are one and  the same. Perhaps Perfect Self is the core of the universal mind. That would be cool.

Meanwhile, at my core is that stillness of Perfect Self. Because I’ve been practicing for awhile, I can get there pretty easily, From that place of stillness is born our natural life. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s creative; it sounds like a great toy from Whammo! Like a Frisbee or a Slip ‘n’ Slide.

That stillness is like the tank that holds my baby snails. The space within the tank is seething with life; the snails, their celery trees and romaine bridges, the food in their picnic area. The water in the tank is teaming with life. But all around it is the stillness of the tank.

We are like that, only our stillness is inside, at our core, fundamental to our Perfect Self. It’s not about silence, or absence, or darkness, or non-sensation, rather it is the defining point, the core, the center of our universe around which everything turns.

When I am aware of that stillness, I lose a little of my attachment to the stuff of my life. I see the movement, the ebbs and flows, the waxings and wanings.

I use Creative Questions to make the path clearer, easier to follow back to my core. Why is it so easy?

I use Creative Questions to chip crud off the pearl of my Perfect Self. How do I know I’m good enough?

I use Creative Questions to live my natural life. Why am I peaceful?

Why do I choose to experience stillness?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 09172013