The power of stopping and sitting still

I woke up this morning thinking about the gratitude workshop I am giving tomorrow. I have had a tremendously busy week at work and I was feeling overloaded. After I dropped my husband at the bus stop, I decided to go home and sit still for awhile, instead of rushing around running errands. I could tell that I was bursting at the seams and just needed to stop.

I have a chair in my bedroom that I reserve for just plain sitting. In this space, I usually light a candle, sit in the chair, and let myself settle down. I might quietly concentrate on my breath to come into the present moment more or read a passage from an inspirational book. The most important thing I find is to just stop. Stop doing.

As I am sitting, I slowly begin to feel my back against the chair, and I connect more gently with my breath. Here, I can ask myself some important questions and listen to the answers that are inside of me just waiting for some space to come out.

It is now mid-morning. It is lightly raining. I am now sitting at my dining room table and I am ready to plan my workshop. We are like nature, in need of periods of rest and activity. The rain is a wonderful reminder of the natural pace: when it’s time to rain, it rains.

It’s amazing how just a short exercise like sitting still can have such a profound effect — it calmed me down and created some opening inside of me to continue doing what I need to do today. There is such a power in stopping and sitting still. You might want to try it today — even fifteen minutes of stopping, slowing down, and sitting still can work wonders.