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Have you ever thought that you need to take time for stillness?
No, me neither, it was not something that I sat down and consciously thought about.
Sure, I had tried meditation and sitting still trying to concentrate on my breath whilst hundreds of thoughts ran wildly through my brain, trying to keep me totally distracted from the task at hand.
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But every so often though in my busy day, I would find time to stop and watch a TED talk.
Maybe this was an unconscious way of stopping. I don’ t know but I did it anyway.
TED talks often made me feel inspired.
Listening to everyday people who had followed their passions, no matter how far out this may seem to the rest of the world at times.
Having the conviction to follow what you believe in takes guts.
In this talk Pico Iyer, a successful travel writer, talks about how he learnt to stop and just be.
Concerned by how much he was racing around in his life, made worse by the endless digital information.
He made some dramatic changes in his life, that brought about a way of stillness into his daily life.
This stillness created something more magical than he realised was possible.
Stillness is not something we often have time to stop and think about.
It’ s not something we have time for in this busy digital age.
Our world is filled with emails, Facebook feeds, Whatsapp messages, trails of Instagram stories and now Clubhouse.
In our lives that seem to be filled with our devices, meant to save us time, why is it that we seem to have less and less time to stop and be ourselves.
We are so busy doing, watching and immersing ourselves in the world around us, that we forget to stop and just be.
I ask you to just stop for a moment, and watch this TED Talk by the writer Pico Iyer. It’ s about 15 minutes long.
Ted Talks — Pico Iyer —The Art Of Stillness (15:37)
What is so poignant is the simple message he is conveying.
In our busy day to day lives, we often forget to just stop.
We forget to take that moment just to be.
Why is this so important, you might ask.
Because it is in those moments that we can be most creative.
It is in those moments we can stop and catch our breath.
Pico Iyer is a travel writer and shares with us that the place that
he would most like to go is nowhere.
Yes Nowhere!!
Pico Iyer talks of all the trips he took all over the world.
These trips were wonderful he says.
But
What he found was something unique from all those journeys.
He learnt that by sitting still he could create journeys in his mind which have lasted him a lifetime.
So moved by this art of stillness,
he decided to make his entire life in the light of going nowhere?
He took drastic steps (this is not for everyone and even small changes in your day to day life can make a huge difference)
He abandoned his seemingly successful life and went to live in a small apartment in Kyoto, Japan.
He talks about how this move brought simplicity to his life.
He talks about how in our on-demand lives there is less and less time to be still.
He talks about how in this this modern world, it has become even more important to find time for stillness.
In this world of constant movement and distraction.
It is important to find time for a chance just to be.
He shares some simple strategies that we could use to take back a few moments in our day and to stop the overwhelm that this modern day life can sometimes bring into our world.
Sitting still is sometimes the only way we can get a break from our busy lives.
But how many times in your day are you able to stop and sit still and take a break?
Have you ever stopped to look at the screen of your life?
What do you see in the larger picture of your life?
In this age of distraction, nothing has become more important than sitting still.
Have you ever considered going nowhere to find stillness in your life?
Please feel free to share some stillness.
Finding stillness in the digital world
*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information*
