by Sara Childre: Many spiritual cultures agree inner stillness creates an energetic environment for supporting our advancing consciousness that can unleash the transformational power of our love…
That’s why, from the beginning of HeartMath, many of the tools and especially the technology has been designed to monitor and facilitate easier access to stillness and its connection to our natural inner wisdom and guidance. Forget the mystical and think of inner stillness as something practical and street-worthy. How many times have we told friends or children to get still inside and listen-up because we have something important to tell them?
This reveals our innate respect for the value of stillness, so why not use it the way it can count the most, to quiet our mental and emotional static so we can hear the counsel from our heart’s intuitive suggestions for better choices and outcomes.
When our mind finally lets go, inner stillness is where we land. From there we can reset and upgrade the experience of our life. The earlier we learn the value of inner stillness, the less we need to experience the more stressful ways life often nudges us into considering higher choices for personal peace and happiness. We often hear ourselves and others say, “If I had more foresight, I would have handled that situation differently.” Stillness is a primary source for increasing our foresight and discernment. Inner stillness is a place that our heart can speak without our mind running it off the road. In order to “be still, and know”we first have to be still enough to listen.
It’s a forward-moving choice to schedule times for inner stillness and allow our heart, mind and emotions to experience a time-out from competing with each other and enjoy some casual peace together. Stillness requires a little practice because our mind will try to occupy that space (or any space if the door is left cracked).
If inner stillness didn’t produce high-value results, think of all the centuries of time that meditators and spiritually conscious people would have wasted throughout history. With refinement, inner stillness becomes like a personal elevator to our highest view and eliminates the weariness from climbing endless stairs. We feel that practicing inner stillness to connect with our heart’s intelligent guidance will become a most positive corner-turning step forward for humanity, not as a trend or religious motivation way but as a practical step for creating a less stressful, happier life.
Inner-Ease™ Technique
Practice the steps of this HeartMath tool to create ease and stillness within.
- If you are stressed, acknowledge your feelings as soon as you sense that you are out of sync or engaged in common stressors – feelings such as frustration, impatience, anxiety, overload, anger, being judgmental, mentally gridlocked, etc.
- Take a short time-out and do Heart-Focused Breathing: Breathe a little slower than usual; pretend you are breathing through your heart or chest area.
- During the Heart-Focused Breathing, imagine with each breath that you are drawing in a feeling of inner-ease and infusing your mental and emotional nature with balance and self-care from your heart.
- When the stressful feelings have calmed, affirm with a heartfelt commitment that you want to anchor and maintain the state of ease as you re-engage in your projects, challenges or daily interactions.
Operating from a state of ease is a natural practice for bringing the essence of stillness into our daily interactive mode.
Benefits and practical applications of Inner Ease
- Start your day by doing the Inner Ease steps, along with the commitment to breathe an attitude of ease when convenient throughout the day. This helps to integrate the benefits of your inner-ease practice into your normal routine and interactions.
- As you proceed through the day, inner-ease helps to prevent the mind’s impatience and distractions from overriding the intuitive whispers of your higher choices and directions.
- Acting from a place of inner ease is a heart-intelligent skill that creates more effective management and distribution of personal energy. Personal energy economy is becoming a top priority in today’s present emotional climate.
- Inner ease reduces regrets and energy drain from non-effective decisions.
- While you are in the flow of inner ease, you travel the straightest line toward manifestation of your intentions.
Silence Is Golden
Why silence is good for your brain – Carolyn Gregoire writes in this 2016 Huffington Post article, “In a loud and distracting world, finding pockets of stillness can benefit your brain and body.” She cites four reasons as a scientific basis for this.
- Silence relieves stress and tension.
- Silence replenishes our mental resources.
- In silence, we can tap into the brain’s default mode network.
- Getting quiet can regenerate brain cells.
“External silence can be the doorway to inner Silence.”
A final note on silence
In a busy world that is constantly changing, outer silence is not always achievable, but you can reduce its detrimental effects by achieving inner silence during your day. Take a few minutes two or three times daily to do the steps of the Inner Ease Technique to help you flow with ease through any outer noise you experience.
