Clarity from stillness

Julia ♦ August 15, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

A snapshot of serenity at the Montreal Botanical Garden, May 2009

“If water derives clarity from stillness, how much more so does the mind!” — Zhuangzi

In a recent post, I discussed the fascination of watching moving waters.  But still waters are captivating as well, particularly when they mirror beautiful scenery.

Stillness is a trait that doesn’t come naturally to me.  Even when my body is not in motion (which is rare during waking hours) my mind is churning endlessly.  I can’t count the number of times, mostly late at night, when I wished my conscious mind had an off/on switch such as Jeff seems to have.  I’ve learned more than a few coping mechanisms to deal with insomnia, but nothing ever chases it away permanently.

It wouldn’t be so bad if my mind accomplished anything useful when my thoughts are scattered or distracting.  An active mind can be an advantage, after all.  But I think my frequent inability to concentrate is often the result of all this perpetual motion in my brain, and it’s not a recipe for clarity inside or outside.  It drives Jeff crazy when I interrupt my own sentences with tangential thoughts!

As one strategy to still my mind, I’m working on dialing back this societal fixation with what is called “multi-tasking” but all too often means “partial and interrupted tasking.”  I could use a little more mental clarity, especially as I age!  Do you have any “stillness secrets” to share with me?  Please post them in the comments, and HURRY, before my mind wanders to a different topic!

This post was originally published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.