Touching Stillness 16 "The Tightrope of Life"

"Let your life dance

lightly in the present moment,

like dewdrops balanced on the tightrope 
of a spiders web"

Leon Edwards

© The Stillness Project

Developing Stillness 15 "Centre Body, Centre Mind"

Centre Body, Centre Mind 2.

With modern living it is easy for our mind to become distracted, multitasking in our 24/7-stress bubble. With the mind full of chatter, we indulge in an internal dialogue of self criticism, regurgitate the past, or rehearse for the future, and not be present in that space between heartbeats we call the present moment. We prevent ourselves from noticing the good things that happen in our lives and we fail to hear what our body is telling us. 

Touching Stillness is to an extent an active not a passive exercise, we have to want to find peace and tranquility, and then create the conditions for stillness to manifest. Stillness is all around us, like a giant ocean or the air we breathe, but just as we have to tune a radio to a specific station so we have to tune our body and our mind to the “stillness channel”. Centre Body, Centre Mind is a posture that allows us the chance to touch stillness and find peace and tranquility even for the briefest of moments.

Centre the Body:

Stand with feet shoulder width apart, parallel and pointing forward with equal weight in each foot. Slightly bend the knees and rotate the pelvis so that the posture is not unlike someone siting on the edge of a table or stool. At the same time imagine the crown of the head is being drawn upwards by a “golden thread”. 

With the weight evenly distributed in the legs and feet and the spine slightly stretched, relax and drop the shoulders, (we create so much tension by constantly “carrying imaginary shopping,”), relax, let go of the tension in the body. Let your arms fall naturally by your side and let your fingers relax. With correct posture you should feel lite and almost floating. Mentally scan your body and bring your attention to any areas that feel tense, feel the tension and breathe energy to those areas to help them relax. 

Centre Mind:

Now close your eyes and place the tip of the tongue on the top palette just behind the teeth, breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Concentrate on the breathing. Some people find it easier to feel the slight movement of the abdomen others may concentrate on the movement of air as it passes over moist lips. Take a few deep breaths and relax, it is important to focus the mind on the breathing. 

Thoughts and distractions will naturally occur, this is unavoidable; so don't worry. Just let the thoughts "float" to the surface and let them dissipate, just like the bubbles in a glass of lemonade, bubbles float to the surface, ‘pop’ and disappear. 

Try to avoid hanging on the thoughts and having an internal discussion with them, if necessary ‘think’ to your self “I am breathing in” when you are breathing in and “I am breathing out” when you are breathing out. You can try counting the spaces between the out breath and the next ‘in’ breath.. When you notice your mind has drifted, gently bring your mind back to focus on the breathing.

Leon Edwards

© The Stillness Project