Stillness: The Key to Unlocking Your Best Self and How to Practice It

So if you clicked on this video, you've probably heard a bit about stillness and how it can potentially help your life, but you're probably wondering more deeply how it can truly unlock your full potential, and maybe even more importantly, how to actually practice it. And this is something I know incredibly well because for the last 6 years I've learned how to practice stillness, and I do it very regularly. And while stillness is a concept that's been around for thousands of years, it's quite in contrast with what broader society pushes us to do, which is to be productive every single moment of every single day. And this is the case since humans started to come together as larger and larger groups and societies, initially to produce enough food for our families. And then build shelters, and then even the broader systems to bring together larger societies. Fast forward to today, and we're in this digital technology revolution where, like I said, we're constantly pushed to make use of every single moment, whether it's to send an email or listen to podcasts as we go. There's this drive to always be productive, but at the same time, we're recently— the, the idea of stillness which is an ancient one, has come back and it's had this renaissance, slowly building momentum, and people are, are learning more and more that maybe less is actually more. And while stillness has been talked about for thousands of years, it's still misunderstood today. See, it's not about disengaging from the world, calming your mind, or taking things slowly. Central and most importantly, stillness is about you. It's about each of us as individuals. And this is the key concept that's been talked about initially by spiritual leaders, but even today by modern executives and leaders. See, in the Bible itself, it says, "Be still and know that I am God." I am being you, each of us as individuals. And more recently, the Indian spiritual leader Ramana Maharshi once said, Stillness is the sole requisite for the realization that the self is God. But stillness isn't just for spiritual thinking and high philosophy. Even modern-day executives have talked about its benefits. See, Steve Jobs often talked about focus, focus being a key component of stillness. He would often say something along the lines that people think that focus is about saying yes to the things you need to do. Or you need to focus on. But no, it's a focus— is about saying no to the 100 other good ideas. And Warren Buffett, the famed investor, once said that the stock market is a device for moving money from the impatient to the patient. Patient being, once again, a key idea of stillness. So if you're at this point in the video, you're sort of okay, you got a little bit of an idea about stillness and how it can be potentially a true unlock for you, but wondering how would it really impact your day-to-day, you're, you're right on track. And that's exactly where I was back in 2019. I had, like I said, heard about it, understood broadly its benefits, but didn't know how it would impact my life. And then after dealing with some real stress and anxiety, I decided to do a 10-day silent meditation retreat. And since then Every single year I take a course and I practice every single day 2 hours of meditation. So I definitely know a thing or two about the benefits of stillness. And I would say that one of the first things I noticed by practicing stillness was this greater happiness and joy. I was incredibly anxious, and immediately after taking one of these courses, I felt this great joy that came from within. And that's the case for all of us when we take a moment to separate ourselves from our to-do lists and challenges and errands and myriad of other things, we just be with ourself. This peace, this joy that's within each of us is able to rise up. So that's number one. Number two is greater confidence and self-love. When we are naturally happier, we're naturally more confident and have more self-belief and self-love. And that's important because if we have this confidence and self-love, any situation, any interaction, we bring that and people notice it. And that's helpful even when we're trying to get things done, to have that confidence and self-belief. Number 3, we're wiser, more thoughtful. Many spiritual traditions of the old and more modern takes on these things talk about that being with ourself, being with our emotions, being with our sensation gives an opportunity for this inner wisdom to rise up. There's space for that wisdom to arise, whether you want to call it intuition your higher mind, your soul, or the universe, whatever you wanna call it. This inner wisdom is able to come up and provide guidance. And on top of it, we're also more thoughtful, right? So if we can separate ourselves from our challenges or our situation and take a 10,000-foot perspective on the situation, we're able to provide a more thoughtful perspective or guidance on a problem or challenge. Number 4, we're kinder and more compassionate. So much of our day and time is focused on ourselves, our issues, our wishes, our desires. But instead, once we're more happy and more confident, we can look into the outside world and realize all the different challenges other people are facing. And then we can oftentimes provide more kindness and compassion towards their needs and their problems. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we really get to know who we are more deeply. Know thyself. See, when we are able to just be with ourselves, be with our sensations, be with the emotions that come and go, whether it's our fears or desires, we're able to sort of, A, see them, and B, maybe even oftentimes go a layer deeper and understand where those, those desires, those fears are coming from, and sometimes even shed them completely, getting to a more true, truer deeper version of ourselves. Now that we know some of the benefits of stillness, how do we actually practice it? Well, the first one's probably an obvious one: meditation. Taking 5, 10, 20 minutes out of your day to just be with yourself, be with your thoughts, be with your sensations, your breath, whatever your technique is. And if you don't have a technique yet, I highly encourage you taking a class or doing a— more importantly, maybe taking a longer course or a minimum using an app or a book to learn how to practice meditation. Number 2, learning to say no. Like Steve Jobs talked about, learning to say no gives an opportunity to focus on the things that you really want to say yes to, really nourishes you, that really gives you an opportunity to connect with yourself and really helps you work towards your goals or visions. Number 3, journaling and reflecting. Taking some time for yourself to just say no to all the different things that are happening in your life and just spending 5, 10, 20 minutes focusing on yourself, looking at your own life, looking at the decisions you've made in the last couple days, what's on your mind, asking yourself bigger, harder questions is a great opportunity to practice stillness and getting to understand yourself better, separate of everything that else is happening in the world. Number 4, being more mindful. Whether it's brushing your teeth in the morning, the food you're eating, as you walk, or even the conversations you're having, just focusing on the task that you're doing as you're doing it, focusing on your body, focusing on your sensations as you're doing these things. This is a great way to practice stillness as you're doing your normal day-to-day activities. And number 5, and perhaps most powerful in today's day and age, a digital detox, maybe taking a day out of a week, a day out of a month, or maybe even a couple of days out of a year where you just don't touch any of your devices, not your phone, your smartwatch, your tablet, TV, whatever it is, and just doing the simpler things in life. Focusing on cooking, being in nature, spending time with friends, or reading a book. Because our devices, while useful, are incredibly addictive. They're incredibly distractive. And once we're able to just be with ourselves and do some of these simpler things, there's once again, there's this opportunity for this natural joy, happiness, wisdom to rise up as we practice stillness. Hopefully this video has been helpful in terms of learning how to practice stillness, its benefits. But once again, remember, most importantly, stillness is about you. And the more that you get to practice stillness, the greater self-love that you generate for yourself. And if you're curious about the benefits of, of self-love, check out this video over here. Take care.