The Essential Value of the Art of Stillness

Subject: Famous Person
Type: Problem Solution Essay
Pages: 22
Word count: 5675
Topics: Mother Teresa, Medicine
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Introduction 

In the contemporary time tech-dominated, media-rich and an over-communicated society characterized by productive activities in the course of people’s livelihood, it is difficult to attain stillness and inner peace. Noise crowds dictate every alley and space leaving individuals spiritually, emotionally and mentally exhausted. Indeed, every action and direction that people choose to lead their lives without a doubt takes them away from pondering on their inner self. The constant distractions, life and career stresses, various emotions, ideals and beliefs, protective mechanisms among others have become a part of humanity, and people’s daily life experiences perceived as usual while it is not. People have made the resolve to let the above norms perpetuate hence distancing them from interacting with their inner conscience every day. The mentioned is evident as people have difficult times turning off their mind and just being still owing to the majority of the global population involvement in different activities to facilitate their survival. As such, human beings have been transformed to human doing for their endless indulgence in other activities that impeded their dedicating some moment of their time to think of themselves and the course of life they lead. Intriguingly, Mother Teresa emphasized on stillness citing the examples of how nature, the stars, moon, and the sun dwell in silence. In other words, she stressed that stillness is a necessity for individual’s interaction with their souls or somewhat inner selves. In essence, all the ancient wisdom literature emphasises the value of stillness as outlined in the scripture in Psalms “Be still and know that I am God.” Thus, stillness is an indispensable part of a being. Stillness always exists within people, but they fail to acknowledge it, while it is a necessity for leading our lives hence an art that ought to be longed for and worth reconnecting to for there is a great joy in achieving stillness in one’s life. Thus, stillness is not some aspect that people have to look for nor is it a journey to numbness and escapism. It is where people originate from and what they are innately made of and thus a natural state of their being. It is thru stillness that people can get to rejoin with their purpose, a member of the soul family alongside other virtues like love for oneself hence a practice that ought to be embraced. Regardless of the quality, stillness is nourishing to the body, mind and spirit as it facilitates the balancing of one’s mind enabling one become balanced and integrated. A few moments of still grounding people in peace and calmness. And so, once an individual realizes themselves in living stillness, they indubitably gain an acquisition to handle every situation that falls on their way with diligence and confidence.

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Definition of the Problem

In the present day, the gods of technology, time and money control humanity. The three mentioned elements dictate how people lead their lives as ascertained by the mantra time is more, and money is everything. The three elements indeed satisfy the human self but then, human beings are losing themselves in their quest of achieving the above through their collective activities which are a sensitive issue currently. What majority fail to comprehend is that in as much as the components mentioned above fulfil their desires, they do so oddly and unnecessarily. This implies that they offer a partial satisfaction hence expounding on why people seek them throughout their lives. Simply put, stillness provides more solace than the three components as research indicates hence its significance in the course of individuals search for consolation. In as much as it is impossible to live without movement, it is only through practising and adapting the art of stillness that people learn to control and lead fulfilled lives. The value of the practice cannot be understated since it forms the foundation upon which all the needed spiritual practices are constructed. Further, the world has become much of a global place proliferated by technology and infrastructure. For this, people are always on the move identifying and adapting diverse means of their survival in the ever competitive world. 

As an outcome, in the due process, individuals tend to lose themselves in stress emotions facilitated by disappointments and the numerous challenges they encounter in the everyday living, therefore, outlining the need for stillness as Metwalli (75) affirms. The stated expounds on the expansion of tourism industry across the globe as most people globally travel to relieve themselves from the everyday struggle, hassle and buzzle of living that is also stained with disappointments at times. Like this, people need to embrace the art of stillness whose value surpasses all other channels of peace and calmness realization. The answer and solution to curbing and managing the overwhelming nature of constant stress and disappointment in the contemporary time lie in being still (Iyer 46). Iyer as well ascertains those above by pointing out that the art of stillness facilitates knowledge cultivation and enables people to solve the difficulties surrounding them in this era of overloaded information and activities. Persons ought to dwell at the haste of life and not the machine determined pace. Fundamentally, the mind can only concentrate on the next move when it is still.

How History Contributes to the Problem  

The art has been in practice for centuries as the scriptures outline that God Himself created the world in stillness. As the scriptures highlight, God created the world which was silent before out of stillness as the different creations depict. For instance, the sun, the moon, vegetation’s and other creations nourish in stillness as exemplified by how a river flows. Hence, people ought to emulate this as the Old Testament reveals (Barton 34). Silence has in the majority of instances been deduced to be the medium of great salvation. To prove the above, the book of 1st Kings 19:12 highpoint that God appeared to Elijah in many forms and all those instances, stillness dominated the surroundings. Calmness characterized the mountain in which God appeared to Elijah. During the first instance, the Bible proclaims that God came in the form of a strong wind that shattered the rocks into pieces, followed by His appearing in the form of an earthquake followed by the fire where stillness conquered the vicinity again. It was after all the above ways that God spoke demonstrating that greatness can only be attained through stillness and in silence. In most churches, this doctrine has been adopted since Christians dwell in the ideal and belief that God’s presence is accomplished in calmness. 

Moreover, the art of stillness can be dated back to the epoch before civilization as the ancient practice of different communities such as Hindus and Chinese via Yoga (derived from Buddhism) and Chinese culture such as Tai Chi indicate. The above forms of meditation along others can be classified as religious shaped of self-guided. For example, yoga a meditation technique and a popular channel utilized by a large percentage of the global population has its origin in India and with an essential impact of linking people with both their physical and inner selves (Hartfield et al. 75). Hence, its history illustrated that the practice was and is still vital to people’s realization of discipline. It facilitated the attainment of their goals, enables people’s expansion of their conscious alongside aiding them to control both their soul and body by enabling them to acknowledge their dysfunctional viewpoint and understanding (Schure et al. 49). Tai Chi, another form of stillness has its origin in China and enhances individuals well-being via promoting good health attainment and greater life longevity (Wang et al. 497). Other types of stillness attained through meditation include walking, mindfulness and concentration techniques which all have a history in the global culture.

Correspondingly, the art of stillness got broadcast across the world during the industrialization period that was characterized by the emergence of the industrial labour force. People overburden both their mind and body compared to the period before civilization took place. During the cited period, people indulged in less cumbersome activities and travelled a lot with less to think of. However, on the dawn of industrialization, people began handling large and sophisticated data that that required a lot of attention hence the emergence of work-related pressures. This can be avowed by Barendregt (138) when he stipulates that as much as people have become more physically immobile, their mind is always mobile owing to the much thinking and issue they handle in their respective settings. The mentioned is undeniably true since industrialization just made the world a more complicated place. In as much as people travel less, the activities around them require their focus hence the need to balance between the societal needs and their requirements thus leading to the multitasking practice. Consequently, this has led to their getting more indulged balancing between activities illustrating the risen issues of related mental challenges that can only be resolved through stillness. The act of freeing up their mind from their everyday thoughts and the sophisticated information and technology utility.

What Parties are Affected? Cause and Effect 

In everyday people’s lives, people from different background face numerous emotional challenges and stresses associated with the activities they are involved in. For such, students, diverse sects’ practitioners, parents, adolescents among other cohorts face a threshold of difficulties in balancing between their activities and daily life aspirations. The mentioned groups of people get trapped by their reactions to their day to day life activities hence imprison in the ordinary life activities that derive them the ability to ponder on their life. Thus, for the nature of their numerous and complex responsibilities, the majority of persons from the mentioned groups lose themselves in alcohol and other immoral activities to keep up with the pressures they undergo. Similar to a balloon filled with air, their life is always filled up to the point that calmness becomes an illusion to them. They usually lack time to spend alone thinking and less hunkering or upended in the course of executing their duties. They have been merely changed to multitaskers that flow with the pace of their stress rather than the flow of life. They seldom get a chance to reboot their minds hence the need for often reboot of their thinking before their shutting down completely. All which can be realized via meditation.

The argument in favour of the Art of Stillness 

As most of scholars and stillness practitioners uphold. Stillness is a realm that the recent fast-paced and technology-addicted world desperately needs. In essence, life is a complicated cycle which emphasises the need for stillness a key art for the realization of peoples goals and attainment of peace of mind. In the current time, most people experience days when they feel like their life is out of control. Many are the instance when people are overscheduled attempting to balance between their work obligation and other personal activities. In such cases, they usually feel overwhelmed by the number of choices they are coerced to make regarding different activities hence graduate to multitaskers with varying balls in the air. However, it is in that midst of busyness that many of them long for a less complicated life. A life that reflects a slower pace where they can be able to relax and privilege in some peace of mind. The sort of life that makes individuals want to abandon their responsibilities and dwell forever in. 

Thus, rather than taking a vacation which might seem cumbersome, disappointing and costly at the same time, the authentic value of silence and calmness can be derived from the different forms of meditation. This would be the actual and permanent solution as it enhances one’s capacity to maintain a sense of inner peace while still living and taking part in their daily activities with much control and less anxiety. To verify the above, Iyer can be quoted; 

“And it’s only by going nowhere- by sitting still or letting my mind relax- that I find that the thoughts that come to me unbidden are far fresher and more imaginative than the ones I consciously seek out.” (p. 62).

Accordingly, as indicated above, the world of stillness is not a world that majority of people are accustomed to experience as it much entails a space of being instead of an active being. Furthermore, the quality of one’s life is in numerous ways a reflection of the quality of one’s inner life. Hence, when an individual desire to make his or her outer world peaceful and beautiful, all they are required to do is master the art of stillness which nurtures an inner self of serenity and endless calmness. Primarily, the fundamental way to achieve the mentioned sense of inner peace and tranquil is over the practice of meditation which when correctly harnessed regulates one’s thoughts directing their brain waves into a pacified harmonious state. 

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To venture into the emptiness of stillness is a calming and required experience for both the mind and health of an individual as long as the inspired action is necessary to realize a fulfilling life. In as much as our cultures have ignored the value of stillness and the exquisiteness of balancing both male and female energies continuously, the art is a basic necessity in life in the recent time constant moving and connected world.  The advocacy of stillness is happiness and gratification which is never easy to achieve in the ever-changing world. There indeed exists an essential component of euphoria in silence hence related to mystical experiences. Like this, meditation a form of stillness has always been associated with mystical experiences which do not frequently occur in the majority of the world’s population unless practices regularly. In stillness, one is concerned with the content of mindfulness. Thus, the two principal types of meditation focus on ones’ consciousness with the first type; concentration mediation entailing striving for an individual’s enhancement of his or her affirmative conscious. On the other end, the second type of meditation; the insightful meditation is focused on the extermination of the negative forms of consciousness such as fear, hatred and restlessness (Barendregt 2). Reflection, therefore, renders temporary relief from both mental and physical hindrances, enlightens people, calmness and bliss to people who engage in the practice highlighting its essential value as depicted by the various types of meditation from Abhidhamma to Abhidharma critical forms of Buddhist meditation tradition. 

Subsequently, as much as the concept of stillness has been regarded as a marvel to human beings, diverse forms of attaining stillness thru different types of meditation continues to be embraced in global institutions since the 21st-century dawn. As a fact, each sort of reflection has a varied degree of impacts depending on its utilization hence the typical mantra of its being inferred to as part of individuals free-spirit unhampered by societal pressure. The trend of practising the art as history depicts was facilitated by the setting in of workplace spirituality following the fueling of the pattern by numerous aspects such as the significant influx of women in workstations, increasing diversity, divorce cases, globalization and expansion of the internet. For instance, most of the U.S workforce during the 20th century realized that their Judeo-Christian-based capitalistic values were not enough to provide all the answers humanity desired. As such, they construed that some horizon expansion was necessary to reinstate the increasing imbalance between the prosperous and underprivileged. Thus, there was a rapid interest in the Eastern traditions, particularly in the Buddhist meditative practices. As a result, with this interest emerged the knowledge of mindfulness and the ancient Buddhists practised such as indulging in the Four Noble Truths doctrines (Marques and Dhiman 77). 

A study conducted by Hartfiel et al. vis a vis the subject indicates that stress is the most dominant threat to the future health of UK workforce with the evidence that an estimated 175 million working days are lost annually in the UK due to increased cases of sickness absence 50% of which are stress-associated. Thus, for employees to perform effectively in any given organization, they ought to experience positive emotional states such as joy, pleasure, and the energy to assist them to curb stress and depression. Notwithstanding the fact that pressure to attain any organizational goals and objectives is anticipated in the workplace, excessive pressures undermine both the psychological and physical well-being of any individual. Hence, research indicates that there is a correlation between work and stress, anxiety, depression heart diseases and gastrointestinal disturbances all that can be curbed via stillness attainment in any organizational employees (Hartfiel et al. 71). Accordingly, the study reportedly showed that yoga renders positive impact to the employees of any given institution owing the art enhancement of people’s emotional well-being and increase their resilience to stress. Similar to its significant role of improving the mood in psychiatric patients, the study depicted that people are less dejected, hostile, bewildered and fatigued after their taking part in yoga meditation (Hartfiel et al. 74). Thus, yoga intervention as a remedy for stress management exemplified long-term well-being and resilience in individuals an essential value of meditation.

Additionally, unmanaged stress renders psychological and physical deleterious impacts on the health of individuals as it increases people’s vulnerability to the conditions mentioned above. It has as well been associated with absenteeism rates and job performance, effectiveness and contentment. Hence, given the prevalence of stress-associated health statuses in the United States and their treatment intervention costs in the nation’s health care system alongside the loss of quality of life for people, public health practitioners are increasingly advocating for stillness as a treatment remedy of the condition. This expounds on why the U.S Department of Health and Human services emphasize on stress reduction via the application of mind and body relaxation as a medical intervention. In particular, the healthcare practitioners are themselves vulnerable to stress burden for the nature of their work profession characterized by distinct challenges. Hence, researchers have identified the significance of providing counsellors with instruments for self-care with the best well-researched stress management program being deduced to be the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) treatment intervention, a form of stillness. 

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MBSR teaches mindfulness which entails the capacity to attend to thoughts and emotions as they emerge enabling an individual to be fully conscious of the present moment experience (Schure et al. 47). Thus, the practice instils people with a peace of mind via instructing mindfulness through peoples practice of meditation, body scan and hatha yoga. Primarily, among the strengths of the MBSR practice that makes it unique from other stress management program is its ability to offer participants a variety of practices to choose from. Accordingly, the approach has been deduced to reduce physical stress, cases of depression, present-moment stress, enhance the quality of life, sleep patterns and immune function in affected persons. Besides, MBSR based counselling has been determined to offer positive impacts to students personal and professional experiences for its application as a specific tool for self-care. Also, counselling stressed patients and students has been deducted to promote their acquaintance of new skills of relating to their emotional life inclusive of awareness and tolerance as Schure et al. (54) also stresses.

Still, on the case of Yoga and MBSR impacts on matters of handling stress-related syndromes in the medical community, the two interventions have been broadly applied in trauma recovery and emotional regulation of diverse patients with complex mental disorders such as PTSD. Mindfulness and Yoga have been presumed to encourage individuals focus on their situation in the present moment with zero judgment their thoughts, feelings and emotions. For instance, Yoga concentrates on breathing and physical exercises that merge movement, muscle relaxation and meditation. The mind and body stillness practice have been widely acknowledged in the enhancement of the capability of PTSD and other mental disorder patients to put up with unpleasant emotions and stress reduction. For such, stillness acquainted through practising Yoga has been associated with a decrease of stress-induced allostatic loads in the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), the GABAergic System and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis (Jindani, Turner and Khalsa 1). Thus, the above stillness intervention practice has been highly advocated for their critical value in increasing resilience and improving mind-body awareness that facilitates transforming cognitions and behaviours. Also, research conducted extensively on the impacts of yoga, have revealed that the practice reduces symptoms related to PTSD preparing an individual for insight based therapies that requires emotional awareness (Jindani, Turner and Khalsa 6). This is to suggest that people become more aware of their thoughts and emotions when they experience silence and calmness which is key to the alterations of their thought patterns and behaviours. As a result, stillness has been continuously interconnected to self-awareness and efficacy.

It seems that Yoga as a form of stillness is amongst the most broadly applied complimentary practices in many states primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom having been found promising in a variety of metal and physical health challenges. Research illustrates that time-limited yoga treatment is useful in the treatment of chronic PTSD in veterans, tsunami victims, military personnel and survivors of intimate partner violence. Various case studies hence suggest that yoga is critical in the treatment of traumatized adolescents and women in residential cares (Price et al. 300). Notable positive outcomes were witnessed in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on adults’ participating in Kundalini Yoga as they exhibited substantial improvement PTSD symptomatology and greater transformations in perceived stress, resilience and anxiety. Equally, military personnel exhibiting PTSD symptoms designated that Yoga is effective in reduction of their conditions symptoms. Likewise, a recent study conducted to test the efficacy of a 10 Week Trauma-Sensitive Yoga program in a randomized controlled trial involving a sample of 64 women with chronic treatment-resistance PTSD showed that extended yoga treatment is effective for women with chronic PTSD (Price et al. 301). Similarly, the results illustrated that compared to women who undertook women’s health education classes, women who participated in the yoga exercise exhibited a significant decrease in depression and tension. Thus, by engaging in more stillness practices like yoga, participants experience more significant reductions in PTSD severity. This is inclusive of loss of diagnosis and achievement of asymptomatic status as well as a reduction in dissociation symptoms at degrees comparable to those developed for bona fide trauma-centred psychotherapies (Price et al. 306).

Fundamentally, the effectiveness of stillness not only in the promotion of the physical and mental state of peoples but also in the treatment of illnesses such as psychopathology has been on the rise in the recent time. This is for the increased research and interest into the application of Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBI) in the treatment of psychological disorders. Owing to those above, both the American Psychiatric Association and the UK National –Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the present day complicated world broadly promote the utility of mindfulness as a therapeutic intervention for recurring depression in adults. Thus, MBIs are at present utilized as techniques for the treatment and intervention of overall health issues in clinical, forensic, developmental, educational and military among other settings as Shonin, Gordon and Griffiths (389) stipulate. What is more, robust empirical studies executed to examine the effectiveness of MBI elucidate that MBIs are efficacious in psychopathology treatments for mood and anxiety disorders. Hence, reports on the significant value of the approach is similar to the positive impacts related to meditation techniques such as Qigong, Transcendental Meditation and non-specific relaxation-based thoughtful approaches derived from the Buddhist culture in the before civilization era. Therefore, when correctly practice and administered, MBI is a safe, less costly and non-invasive instrument for enhancing psychological health among a large and varied groups of individuals (Shonin, Gordon and Griffiths 391). Preliminary evidence as well suggests that MBIs are indeed effective treatments for addiction, behavioural and pain disorders, anger dysregulation, schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, sexual dysfunction and attention deficit disorders.

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Stillness is presumably applied in every sphere owing to the positive impact on the well-being of the practitioner. Successfully navigating the everyday life challenges requires the attitude of being calm in all situations and rebooting one’s mind to tackle life’s dilemmas and encounters. The practice has in recent time emerged as a promising strategy to improve self-regulation and positively impact central regions of the brain responsible for self-control more so in adolescents. When perceived profoundly, it is ostensible that the adolescence period is a phase in adolescents stormed by constant stress and pressures from all directions for its sensitivity. The difficulties include stress, risk-taking behavior, poor dietary choices, peer and media influence and lack of physical activities that lead to increased cases of obesity. This is where stillness attained via meditation comes in place. Through meditation, adolescents are capable of regulating their emotions and cognitive functionality by enhancing their integral components of self-regulation as Erbe (1) avows. This is through the practice of improving the functioning and connectivity of individuals Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC). Hence, as much as the modern civilization thrives in manufacturing irrelevancies that have magnificently managed to direct people’s attention towards other trivial pursuits (directed toward instant contentment and unceasing partial attention), meditation plays a major role towards the restoration of people’s attention. The practice of mindfulness and concentration on one’s inner self-guarantees immunity against individual’s delusion and insignificant destructions (Marques and Dhiman 83).

Counterargument on the Art of Stillness

Nonetheless, notwithstanding the harmonizing value of stillness, critiques of the practice argue that majority of researchers conducted on the subjects fail to highlight the adverse impacts of excessive stillness. For instance, the critiques argue that excessive stillness leads to patient’s ignorance of adapting other mental treatment interventions in preference to the art of silence. They also cite issues of anxiety dominated emotions, hallucinations, loss of oneself in the process, changes in motivation and development of anti-social behaviour in the practitioners. However, there indeed exists numerous fallacies of the above allegations as assessed below.

According to Pace et al. (9), meditation practice may impact physiological pathways that are regulated by stress and associated with illnesses. According to the article, much attention has been directed towards stillness practices that promote calmness and develop mindfulness. On the contrary, little research has been conducted regarding the impacts of stillness on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioural responses to psychosocial stress and the degree in which involvement in meditation practice influenced stress reactivity. Through the case study conducted on the above subject, data indicates that compassion meditation training renders a limited effect on health-related behavioural responses or physiological stress. Moreover, compassion meditation was derived from being only impactful on individuals who commit to some amount of practice. This implies that compassion meditation impact is dose-dependent and depends with people’s dedication to the practice hence cannot be relied on on the regular control of people’s emotions. Additionally, there exists the prevalent belief that meditation affects the immune functioning of individuals. This is because MBSR, improves responses to an immunological challenge by proposing that the practice of meditation may boost immune responses to a psychosocial stressor hence facilitating mechanisms through which other ailments follow. Accordingly, the stimulation of innate immune inflammatory pathways in response to psychosocial stress might as well represent a mechanism connecting stress to depression (Pace et al. 11). However, there exists a fallacy in the above logic emanating from the ambiguity of the research data in that some aspects of meditation were not compatible to the control conditions which might have contributed to the study findings.

Besides, the UK National Health Service (n.p) argues that meditation can leave one more devastated and stressed that before. The article stipulates that there is a myriad of challenges associated with the practice of meditation in the course of one’s search of stillness. Majority of meditation participants attested to experiencing more depressive emotions and even suicidal thoughts after meditating with some even feeling the urge to seek mental treatment intervention. Also, other participants cited cases of fear and anxiety hence deducing that meditation renders adverse cognitive effects to the individuals therefore affecting their decision-making ability. It was also noted that the practice results in hallucinations, increased personal sensitivity to sensory stimuli like noise and light. Mixed depression and blissful emotions, grief and recurrent traumatic feelings have also been presumed to occur to individuals engaging in the practice. The art has also been associated with change in peoples sleep pattern, increase their tension, and burst in energy which indeed impacts their effort and motivation in the course of their activities. Majorly, social impact was the key challenge as the practice leads to increased cases of dissociation from one’s family, friends and even oneself to some degree which leads to individual’s development of antisocialism which affects their integration in the society. However, the above logic overlooks the medical and wellbeing advantages of the art of stillness. As the analyses on the indispensable value of stillness above depict, it is superficial that the cost of meditation supersede its negative impacts and when administered appropriately, the mentioned challenges have a slight chance of being witnessed hence a weakness of the NHS source.

Further, Newberg and Iversen (288) refute that meditation associated calmness and peace of mind is narrowly explored. As an outcome, the above scholars emphasize that more avenues need to be examined profoundly to explicate better mechanism underlying meditative practices. This is for the reason that majority of research conducted on the issue suffers from a limited number of topics such as lack of regulative conditions and challenges in confounding variables. Without a doubt, the knowledge of neurotransmitter system is highly sophisticated and refined with every research. Hence, it is difficult to assess whether all the brain structures and neurotransmitters systems function in an integrated manner. Moreover, since meditation alters an individual cognition and behaviour, it is apparent that chronically ill patients might not show any changes during the sessions.  This might be as a result of chronic PTSD patients’ resistance to the treatment intervention which might worsen their condition (Price et al. 306). For such, PTSD cases require a more widespread, community practice inclusive of mental health interventions and cost-effective programs to curb the conditions hence meditation alone is not enough. Similarly, most mediation instructors have inadequate knowledge of trauma intervention which requires psychotherapists intrusion with an adequate understanding of the situation, therefore, the need for mental health practitioners to curb the state entirely depicting the fallacy of stillness as an intervention (Price et al. 307).

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Why Individuals ought to Embrace the Art of Stillness

In the context of stress management, different forms of meditation from yoga, tai chi and space out concentrate on relaxing the mind. For such, all the above forms involve the repetition of a mantra that might be in the form of encouragement repeated over and over for self-assurance and confidence restoration. The art of stillness hence, propagates the primary sphere of changing one’s behaviour, developing an individual’s lifestyle and improving one’s mindset. In the current world, we dwell in dominated by increased pressures from both out inner and outside environment; stillness is necessary for the propagation of positive thoughts in individuals. Many are times when people prefer to be among individuals that are lively, interesting and positive in comparison to people who are full of negativity, boring and worn out. How people perceive an individual is critical for their self-image hence the emphasis on embracing the art of stillness (Spiers 135). It is often the case that those people who are passionate in rebuffing the fact that they have a problem with stress are the same people in need of more help. As such, the mentioned instances require the establishment of a trusting relationship with oneself to deal with life challenges effectively. This is where stillness comes into play. 

Hence, in the present complex world, stillness is essential in quieting the mind. It is vital to practice living and to reflect on one’s thoughts which proliferates the awakening of an individual’s inner stillness. It has been proved to offer great stress relief in every endeavour people take. When people usually are experiencing hard times, they let anger and frustration take the better part of them which leads to the numerous instances of anger which is always tied to some judgement of some sort. As an outcome, people become less aware of their thoughts creating negativity in the course of all their thinking turning them into pessimists full of doubts regarding their potential. However, when the same individuals take some time off and dedicate themselves to socialize with their inner self either through any form of stillness or meditation, they get to ponder on the issues affecting them calmly, allowing them to make informed and considerable decisions full of hopes and positivity. When people meditate, they let out the toxic negative emotions they had been holding to themselves and against others, regularly reminding themselves their potential and worthiness, detoxifying their inner self thereby reminding oneself to remain in the present moment.

Conclusion 

In a nutshell, it is thru stillness that an individual gets to open up and realize their authentic inner being which is God. Whatever thoughts people recurrently give their attention to are strengthened to establish an emotional state or climate. This way, people create their reality hence making them aware of their glooms and blooms depending on the things they direct their attention to. This implies that people experience life through the lanes of their thoughts and emotions. Hence this is to mean that people experience life from a distorted perspective depending on their current emotion which might be disastrous if not regulated appropriately. Nevertheless, through the gentle regulation of attention, stillness empowers people to nurture a new relationship based on our internal and external experiences. With these insights, one can gain access to their most in-depth inner resources of living, restoration and coping up with stress. Therefore, it is through the lens of stillness that individuals get to acquaint themselves with a greater sense of awareness of their suffering and psychological distress hence enabling them to regulate their emotions and make informed decisions.

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