Learning to be still

With load shedding causing so much disruption to our lives, the other day I decided to try and use it in a positive way. 

So I lit an old fashioned hurricane lamp I had and sat on the couch with the animals in the flickering light in front of a silent tv with no electric lights or generators or anything else.

At first it was hard for my mind to be still, in fact I got up and walked around with the lamp a couple of times to potter and fidget with items in the house.

I slowly however tuned down to a point where I sat still for about 20 minutes collecting my thoughts.

Then it got harder to be there, doing nothing. I wanted to go and get my phone which I’d left in the other room or do something, anything. To be engaged, to be entertained, to be distracted/// but I pushed through that temptation too.

And slowly, after baut an hour of sitting, letting my thoughts wonder, being idle and still and relaxed and calm simply because there was nothing else to do till loadsheding was finished. Slowly I found a thought process and concentration I hadn’t felt for a very long time. A focus and creative structure of thoughts that brought clarity to the things I decided to turn my thoughts towards.

It was so useful in fact that it helped me solve small and large problems i had, from DIY things i wasn’t sure exactly how to implement to more complicated work issues.

It was so beneficial to me that I decided I wanted to try and do that every night. Just take an hour to sit and be still and let my thoughts wander and solutions come naturally to things I had going on in my life.

I ended up only doing it sporadically, because, well, life.

But still, now understand the value and absolute necessity of stillness in our lives sometimes. Something I think we’ve lost in the frenetic, always-on, hubbub of modern daily living.