Meditation is really about deepening our relationship to stillness. Which is ultimately about stepping into the heart.
Our heart is the essence of who we truly are, and our heart has a very intimate relationship to stillness.
The more deepen into stillness, the more we reconnect to our heart. And the more we connect to our heart the greater we feel stillness.
Our heart responds to stillness.
For me, there was a profound shift in my relationship to stillness through my meditation practice and inner work – it went from a feeling of cultivating stillness inside me, to a remembering.
At a certain level of stillness there was clearly a sense of “I know this”. Somewhere deep in my heart I know stillness.
The feeling is more than a remembering, it’s a feeling of return.
A returning home.
Home – in the most profound and archetypal way. The essence of belonging.
This has also been a common experience I’ve observed with the students and clients I’ve worked with, as well as fellow meditators over the years.
So, in this blog post I’d like to talk about one of the greatest teachers in stillness we have, and how to take advantage of their endless giving to help you deepen into stillness
One of Our Greatest Teachers
One of the greatest teachers in stillness we have, is nature.
That’s why it feels so good when we spend time in nature… it expresses a stillness that our heart responds to.
Spend enough time there and its quiet permeates you.
If you live in a city and you go and spend time in nature, you’ll notice the contrast. You can feel your body let go and soften, as your vitality returns. If you spend a night in nature or in a small town that’s nestled in nature your sleep will feel more rejuvenating.
Nature supports life because stillness flows through it.
Cycles of Nature
While nature expresses stillness all the time, there are special times when nature expresses it to a greater degree… and it’s these times that we have an incredible opportunity to deepen our relationship to stillness and awaken our heart.
To understand this, we need to understand the cycles of nature. Cycles of internalization and externalization. These phases of internalization are when there’s a movement towards stillness… and the times when it becomes more tangible for us to feel and connect with.
For example, during sunset and early evening you can feel the quietening of nature as it moves from daytime towards the stillness of the night. It’s not necessarily a specific time, but more a phase of quietening.
Seasonally, fall is the same internalizing principle happening over a more extended time frame. I like to call fall, the sunset of the seasons. There’s a quietening and turning inwards of nature as it moves towards the stillness of the winter. But there’s also incredible colour in nature as the leaves change colour, just like the colour in the sky that can be seen during sunset.
The rhythms, beauty and intelligence of nature are incredible, and can inspire such a sense of wonder and curiosity.
In a previous blog post – How The Magic Of Fall Can Take You Deep In To Your Heart – I talk more in depth about this.
And then we also have the moon cycle. A little more mysterious, but for the purpose of this post, the important part is the same internalizing quality of energy as we approach the new moon. We know the full moon can be a time of crazy energy, and even crime rates can be seen to spike during this time.
Have you ever felt unsettled, frustrated or a little crazy that seemed to be for no logical reason? But then someone mentioned it was a full moon.
The full moon can reflect intense energies that can make us feel unsettled sometimes… But the new moon is a time of greater internalization and stillness.
Deepening into stillness by aligning with the cycles of nature
Your heart will appreciate any time that you spend in nature, but for deepening in stillness (and into your heart) I invite you to take time to connect with nature during these internalizing phases.
- Sunset into the early evening.
- Fall – especially late fall as we approach the winter solstice.
- The day approaching the new moon.
What do I mean by connect with nature?
I mean feel it. Become sensitive to it.
Don’t try to think about it. Your ordinary thinking mind can’t comprehend stillness. It doesn’t’ know how.
But your heart knows it intimately!
So, drop out of your head and into your heart, and feel it from there.
Feel beyond the images and things you see with your physical eyes.
It’s in the background, permeating everything.
“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” – The Little Prince by Antoine De Saite-Exupéry
Quietening
Remember, while each cycle will have it’s pinnacle of most internalize time, it’s more a phase of the cycle that passes the energy of internalizing. The internalizing energy is a movement or a momentum towards greater stillness.
This is the teaching nature can pass to you – quietening towards stillness.
When you sit for meditation, this is exactly what you do. It’s the same principle, but nature knows how to do it better than anyone.
Nature knows stillness!
Let her show you how it’s done.
…
