In the Silence of Our Heart
What does it mean to go into silence? Where do I find silence? How does it help me?
Any degree of distress, whether psychological or physical, is a gift that invites me to return to the present moment—a place of stillness where new insight accrues, leading me to greater awareness and presence.
A client of mine recently came to see me in great distress and shaking hands.
Stress, anxiety, or fear causes the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and noradrenaline. This surge primes muscles for rapid action (fight or flight) and can cause them to become tense and tremble slightly due to increased nervous system stimulation.
How I see it, shaking is a wonderful sign demonstrating how thought can lead to physical symptoms. In that case, his stress-response system was on such high alert that his body released stress hormones, which were leading to shaking. The shaking is a physical response from the body to release excess energy and help the body to calm down.
But as so often in all of us and of course always innocently, he was also unable to notice the love letter his body was sending him, and so he became even more stressed and fearful. This led to high blood pressure, dizziness, and difficulty functioning in everyday life.
Sydney Banks once said, “If the only thing people knew was not to be afraid of their experience, the world would be a better place.”
I always have two choices: I can be afraid of my experience and get caught up in my own thinking, or I can see my symptoms—both psychological and physical—as wonderful wake-up calls inviting me out of stressful thinking back into a place of stillness.
In a place of stillness: I come out of my head. I move from a place of disconnect into a place of connection, not only with myself but also with my surroundings. I let my feelings wash through me like the ebb and flow of the tide. They come, and they go. I let them be. I don’t interfere. I no longer try to figure stuff out.
Don't you think it is a great relief to know that we don’t need to know?
I can sit in my garden, and I don’t have to do anything for it, but eventually the sun will rise again, shining over the top of the mountain, warming up the little village where we live with bright light.
When we give up trying to be in control, we will still be left with a choice: to react to every event in our lives with distress, or with acceptance.
No matter what life throws at me, deep within is something truly wonderful—a place that can never be broken, never touched. It is a place of resilience that no one can break. Sometimes it is simply overshadowed by layers upon layers of negative thinking and self-beliefs.
The moment you leave your thinking alone—completely alone—you don’t try to change it, you don’t try to figure it out, you simply let it be……..You are back home again.
My client is starting to get a glimpse of that, and now, when he shakes again, he knows not to be afraid of his feelings but to go home, to his place of stillness. Here are all the answers he seeks.
Let us all be more forgiving, loving and kind with ourselves and others. And never forget, you and everybody else are always giving the best, with the knowledge available in that present moment.