Practice stillness: An approach to a holistic lifestyle

In our fast paced lifestyle, our mind is occupied with too many things. Our brain is loaded with too much of information. We become less effective when our mind occupied with too many things. Any form of stillness practices even if practiced for a short period of time in a day creates free space in our mind which makes us a lot more effective during the day.

Fourth State: All of us live in one of the following states during a day. A wakeful state is the state where our mind and body are active, a sleep state is the state where the body and the mind are resting and a dream state is the one where the body rests while the mind stays active. There is a fourth state, technically called as ‘Turiya’ in yoga, where the body and mind stay in a very relaxed state and simultaneously we become aware of this relaxed state. Practicing stillness allows us to reach this fourth state where one can introspect the internal world within him.

Mind & Awareness: In general, most of us are under the strong influence of the mind. In this case, the mind stays on top of our awareness. While we practice stillness, we direct the awareness to stay on top of the mind. By doing so, the mind slowly loses its strength. Ego is the false identification of SELF to the mind. So, we are under the influence of ego as long as the mind has a strong hold on us. We experience our true SELF when our awareness expands with the stillness practice.

Postures: Any sitting posture which keeps the spine vertically upright with the root chakra at the base and crown chakra at the top. These are the potential and kinetic energies respectively within us. With continuous practice of stillness, a stage comes where one can tap and experience the inherent evolutionary energy which has infinite potential.

Process: A physiological effect of still body in the sitting posture has psychological influence on the mind. Awareness on the mind and the stillness of the mind can be experienced when one maintains a still body. So, the first and foremost requisite to gain access to the deeper layer of the mind is to establish a still body. It becomes easy to observe the involuntary subconsciously controlled automatic functions such as breathing, heartbeat, etc. once the stillness of the body is achieved. Our awareness laid on these involuntary functions improves our own sensitivity. Improved sensitivity allows us to feel the subtle body sensations activated by our nervous system. Our nervous system is the storage medium of the so-called, our conditioned mind. Stillness of mind happens as we become aware of these subtle sensations and as we continue to stay in a non-judgemental detached state. A pure expanded state of awareness can be achieved with a still body and a still mind.

First step: The first and foremost prerequisite for practicing stillness is to establish a perfectly still body. That is to have a still body in the sitting posture. During the initial days of practice, one may experiences very subtle movements in the body like forward backward movement of spine, the movement of head etc. So, do become aware of these movements and try to establish a still body. A still body lets us gain access to the subconsciously automatic involuntary functions.

Practicing stillness even for few minutes a day allows us to stay in a pure state of awareness. This has profound impact of our entire day. Personally, I feel it is powerful tool of the ancient wisdom which has now become a necessity in the fast paced modern world.