“Maybe sometimes we should just sit, and in the sitting understand that life speaks in stillness and therefore on occasion we would be wise to join it there.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough
Our minds want to confuse us and make everything more complicated than what it really is. We constantly feel like we have to make to-do lists, and complete priorities. It’s why our brain will not easily settle down to do a simple task. The most difficult and simultaneously the simplest task we can undertake is to pay attention, to listen, and to observe. The most beneficial thing we can do for our mind is enter into that space of stillness, that perceptual, sensing side of our brain; yet, this is what we resist more than anything! We must take time to intentionally drop out of the planning, conceptual brain and into the present moment. We must make the conscious, on purpose decision to practice doing this even knowing that our brain will fight us. When I say our brain will fight us, I mean that it might call forth emotions of panic, anxiety, worry, thoughts of time-wasting, to-do lists, the past, the future–anything but the right now.
Fight back.
Your brain is in charge of your thoughts, but you are in charge of your brain–Don’t forget that.
Before beginning the day, take five or ten minutes (maybe less if this seems daunting) to just sit in the quiet stillness. Don’t worry about what needs to get done. I always say if it needs to get done, it will get done. You do not need to prove to yourself that you are busy by making a list. Just be. Everything you are pushing aside to have these few minutes will be there at the end of your practice. Just for now, enjoy these moments that belong only to you.
Stop.Breathe.Be 