Quiet Moments in a Noisy World

On the difference 20 minutes can make

One of the things that I love about the weekend now that my children are grown is that there is time to make a cup of coffee and get back in bed and be with a book or notebook and see what arises.

It’s the liminal time, which is one reason why so many writers write in the early morning.

Our minds and hearts are not yet burdened by thinking about the things we ought or even want to do with our day. We are not yet saddened by the news of the world or distracted by the avalanche of images, opinions, and posturing on social media.

We can be with ourselves and see what arises.

And what arises for me, almost inevitably, is good.

It may come in the form of insight, inspiration, wonder, gratitude, or simply the profound felt experience of being alive in this instant, which is remarkably easy to lose track of in the swirl of modern life.

I have learned that if I do not give myself this time – if I am always going, always focused on something outside of me – I will eventually feel depleted and downhearted about the state of the world. But if I give myself the time, I not only feel nourished; I see the beauty in life.

What does this have to do with Extreme Thriving – this idea of cultivating well-being in a changing world?

Clearly, it is one of the simple strategies that help: giving ourselves the gift of time to ourselves. But there is also something more to it than that.

Taking time for ourselves is a necessity today. It is healing medicine in a world that debilitates us with too many words, too many distractions, too many worries, and too little focus on matters of the heart.

The heart heals and guides us when we listen. But to listen, we need to be quiet.

And there is another layer to this still. Taking time to ourselves, if only a few minutes in the morning, is an opportunity to create a healthier integration between our inner life, which is generally good, and the outer world, which is a good deal more mixed up.

It also allows us to reconnect with wonder, as the late Irish poet John O’Donohue said, that everything, from the sky above us to the rocks beneath our feet, has been here so much longer than us.

Remembering this helps me put down the feeling that the weight of the world is on my shoulders – and I can somehow never do enough. Put another way, it reminds me that life is not a project to constantly tinker with. Sometimes you just have to sit back and appreciate it.

Letting that in brings peace. And a peaceful mind and heart, it turns out, are better suited to rise up, meet the day, and do some good.

May you have a good day.

Or as O’Donohue so beautifully wrote in To Bless the Space Between Us: “May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here, that behind the façade of your life, there is something beautiful and eternal happening.”

Lisa

P.S. You may notice I changed the timing of this newsletter to Sundays in hopes it might arrive during a quieter moment in your week.