SLOW DOWN – BE STILL   words by Carmel Rowley

Stillness or the ability to sit and do nothing is difficult to do. In fact, according to my yoga teacher it’s a skill. When we sit still our minds begin to wander and we have the distinct feeling that we have something else we should be doing.

When was the last time you simply sat and stared into space?
Do you think we’ve forgotten how to sit and do nothing?

I decided to blog about stillness or the ability to just sit and do nothing because I do lots of thinking about the plots of my books, the structure of the story, the cover and lots of other details too long to list. In the midst of all this my thoughts and ideas have a strange habit of popping into my head at the most inconvenient times. My mother used to call it daydreaming. Understandably, because I seemed to be constantly searching for answers to all my questions.

Now as I draft my seventh novel I’ve learnt an amazing set of skills. This is thanks to eighteen months of yoga. For both my health and state of mind I now take time to relax, breathe and get in touch with my emotions. I’ve also learnt how to just sit and do nothing. I now wholeheartedly agree that this is most definitely a skill.

All through the busy years of breeding Arabian horses as well as working off the farm I felt it was important to be high-functioning and to leave nothing undone. I didn’t even give myself a chance to wonder if I was happy and content with my life. I took it for granted that of course I was happy and content.
But as the decades passed I also began to wonder if something else was at work here. I still wanted to be high-functioning and I knew I was happy, but most of all I wanted and needed to be content in the way I managed my life, really contented. I began to noticed that in today’s instant society most of the people I knew had forgotten how to do nothing. Most were far too busy to even contact me. The words time-poor was bandied around as a plausible excuse for the lengthy silences.

These days (in retirement) I’m learning how avoid that panicky feeling when I’m not getting enough  done. I’ve been taught that if I want to be high functioning, happy and content I needed to learn how to be still. When I feel there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done or when I wish for more time, I tell myself I don’t actually need more time. I need more stillness. Stillness to recharge. Stillness to feel all will be waiting to be addressed tomorrow. For now be still.

Here are some of Lesleigh’s Yoga suggestions if you’re feeling overwhelmed and time-starved:
1. Stop
2. Remember what you need more than time – is downtime.

How to cultivate stillness:
1. Try driving in silence, with your radio and phone off.
2. Try and eat meals out of sight and sound of your phones and televisions.
3. Take a walk outside every day, preferably in nature, without a phone or music. If it’s hard, just try a few minutes at a time, adding extra minutes every day.
4. Just practice, it’ll get easier and the benefits will become apparent.
5. Finally forgive yourself the next tome you find yourself staring blankly into space. You aren’t wasting time. You’re catching up on your stillness.

Give it a go, I know it’s helped me.

Lesleigh’s Yoga Classes Toowoomba

Words adapted from Lesleigh’s Yoga weekly flyer.  www.iyta.org.au/lesleigh