Recently in a conversation with a native German speaker, she used the word WELL-STILLNESS to describe well-being. What an awesome paraphrasing of what is really at the core of wellness; to be still and at peace.
Well-stillness: doesn’t that describe a sense of wellness, serenity and a harmonious balance of our various selves?
During the earlier stage of the Covid crisis, there was a sense of stillness everywhere, because the frantic hurriedness of our lives was forced to stop. For many people, it was the first time in years that they had actually paused and been forced to slow down, and after the initial dread, many people appreciated the chance to hit the reset button. Now we are back to more normal circumstances, that stillness is slowly going away, replaced by the usual hurrying about. Besides getting my jabs, what have I done to not waste this crisis? What have I constructively learned and plan to implement as part of my ‘new normal’ strategy?
Independent of Covid, consider your well-stillness. When you are in a state of quietness, is there calm or anxiety? What internal noises are distracting you? Are you consciously at peace when you are still? What is it you should do or stop doing? Consider how can you couple excitement with stillness; these are not opposing emotions. The trick is to merge them; things that truly speak to your stillness are inspiring, just consider your favourite artform and how an excellent example of it excites and stills you at the same time.
We are human being, human doing and human stillness. The state of nature that seems to get the least attention is our stillness. Curiously, stillness is the easiest experience to have, but one that we appreciate or seek out the least. Perhaps it is time to re-visit how we allocate our attention and engagement and bias it a bit more towards stillness.
An interesting strategy to understand and improve your well-being is to explore and experiment with your well-stillness. The more you are at peace and comfortable with your stillness, the better your shalom will be.
Reflection Source: www.Smallercup.org
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