Quiet Time and Stillness Can Be Empowering

We live in an age when "doing" is prized more than "being". We live frantically busy lives where time is our most precious commodity. The thing most of us yearn for is work/life balance.

Yet when we become overwhelmed by all this "doing" stuff, when we become stressed and need to stop and just "be", we find it the hardest thing to do. Being with ourselves, resting in ourselves, is very difficult for most of us.

Instead we turn on the TV, plug the iPod into our ears, listen to the radio and distract ourselves from what is happening inside us with a coffee, a beer, glass of wine, chocolate or even a cigarette.

Now, there is nothing wrong with any of that as a way to switch off from a difficult day at work - unless it becomes our habitual way of relaxing and unwinding.

What happens when we "relax" that way all the time, is we lose contact with what is actually happening within our bodies and, in fact, our minds, not to mention our spirit. We become tireder and tireder over time. We wake up each morning still not feeling rejuvenated.

You are now asking: but isn't that what is supposed to happen? Isn't that why we have holidays - to rejuvenate ourselves? What if I told you it did not have to be that way.

Discover the Power of "Being" with Yourself.

Many great people throughout time made this discovery, that you can empower yourself in an extraordinary way when you stop, be still, be quiet, be silent, contemplate and meditate.

Once empowered you can achieve amazing things.

I remember hearing the great and late M Scott Peck interviewed once. For those of you who do not know him, he wrote one of the very first self help books back in 1978 - The Road Less Travelled. It sold more than 6 million copies in the US alone and was translated into 20 languages.

He was commenting that his colleagues ask him how he can fit so much into his life. He had a private psychiatric practice, travelled the world lecturing, wrote books and was involved in community building work. He told them that the reason he could do all that was that he took two hours off in the middle of every day just to be with himself. He would read and reflect, sit in his garden, listen to music, meditate and do a whole range of things that allowed him to be still. He called it his prayer time because that was the only way people would not interrupt him. Their response was that they could not possibly take two hours off in the middle of every day. They were too busy. "Well, that is the reason", he said, "that you cannot fit as much into your life as I do."

When we learn to stop and be still and do it on a regular basis, we can make the same discoveries that M Scott Peck made.

• We can find that our mind becomes free and uncluttered.
• Thoughts and ideas flow across our mind and we gain insights into many things that have been challenging us.
• In an extraordinary way answers emerge to questions we have been asking. Sometimes we do not get an answer, but the tension in the situation just fades and we find ourselves approaching it from a new and different perspective.

Learning How To Be Still and Quiet

- A Very Important Soft Skill.

The most significant part of developing the soft art of being still and quiet is what we learn about ourselves. It is an optimum experience for developing and enhancing our self-awareness.

Becoming self-aware is one of the top soft skills we need to become successful in whatever we do. Self-aware people are self-confident and self-motivated. They manage themselves very well - their emotions, their time, their stress. They are positive and pro-active. In other words, they are empowered and empowering people that are good to be around.