Anticipating Stillness

by Jeanette Roach

What do these words mean to you?   “Sit comfortably in your chair, close your eyes, and relax your muscles.  Still your breathing.  Quiet your mind…..”  Were you overjoyed, knowing a meditation was coming your way? Or were you filled instantly with dread, knowing someone was going to ask you to do something virtually impossible…be still?

Yeah that’s right, stillness in body, mind and soul.  Oh brother, how to be still in a world defined by chaos.

Stillness, the very act of being still.  As defined in the dictionary, “still” can be a noun, a verb, or an adjective all relating to the concept of quiet, calm, peace, silence, and lack of movement.  How do we achieve this in our world, filled with work, family, play, deadlines and all too often, traffic?  The enlightened among us say simply, find time for yourself, meditate, just be…just be still.  I don’t know about you but being still for me is something akin to a toothache…I’m just hoping it will go away.  So let’s look at how we can be still: body, mind and soul.

Now, just ask a three-year-old to be still…ha, ha, ha. Okay, they made it to the chair, but within a nanosecond the squirming started.  You will probably have to bribe him or her just to get a few seconds of peace, won’t you?  Even so, the peace and quiet won’t last for long. But the anticipation of peace can lead to stillness.  Anticipation, hmm, now there’s a concept.  I bet you never thought about anticipation being so closely and intimately involved with stillness.

Let’s explore this further.  Think about a time you were waiting for something.  Think about something you knew would happen and what preceded it?  That’s right, a moment of stillness, even if you didn’t acknowledge it.  How about the skipped heartbeat (complete stillness) when you first see your lover’s face appear in the crowd?  Then there is that moment right after your child is born, as you wait for that first cry.  Only a second or two, but all is still with anticipation.  How about right before Thanksgiving dinner? Just after grace and right before you picked up your fork, there is stillness.  Watch that three-year-old again as they open their presents.  R-I-P goes the paper, eyes light up, they take a big inhale…stillness…and then “just what I always wanted” glee explodes.

The stillness in nature is yet another exercise in anticipation.  The calm before the storm.  The calm in the eye of the hurricane.  The peace in your backyard during a snowstorm, just before all the snow blowers take over.  Stillness.  Anticipation for upcoming events.  See, even Mother Nature can’t be completely still, she’s just waiting for the next thing to happen. 

So let’s apply this to ourselves, the ones who can’t seem to be still.  Take a breath, inhale and hold it.  You are waiting for what comes next, the exhale.  Relish the stillness, even for just a little while, as your body calms and relaxes.  Stillness step one.

On we go to the mind.  This is the hard part.  Yes, we have to put away the laundry list, the to-do list, the four o’clock meeting, but it is possible.  Acknowledge the anticipation, embrace it.  Wanting it to go away only causes agitation.  Imagine the positive and give in. Now, don’t you feel better?  Holding our thoughts in our mind’s eye allows us to be

patient, to anticipate, to revel in the possibilities.  In essence, we just bribed ourselves to be still.

I saved the soul for last.  The soul need not be still, quiet, or without movement. In our efforts to achieve stillness, and its partner, anticipation, our soul, our very spirit should fly, it should soar!  Let that happen, even if you  only achieve great heights for seconds at a time.  With all things, practice can make perfect.

So, you see, stillness should not be a matter of length of time.  It should be a matter of accumulation, all those little moments of calm, of peace.   If you need practice, and who doesn’t, I have a suggestion for you.  That snowstorm coming up, it can’t be avoided.  Open a window, if possible, or simply go outside.  Listen.  See.  Feel.  Even in the quiet, movement is happening.  Just before the snow blowers kick in, imagine this…Mother Nature is using this time to get ready, to anticipate spring.  It will be here before you know it. So let those moments happen.  Be calm.  Find peace.  Anticipate.  Soar!

Jeanette Roach is an instructor and lecturer at Irene's Myomassology Institute.  You may reach her at  jan2760@talkamerica.net