Turn into Quiet So You Can Pay attention

By Leo Babauta

“The quieter you develop into, the extra you’ll be able to hear.”

― Rumi

There’s hardly ever a second within the day when most of us cease transferring and cease the noise. For many of us, we’re working, we’re transferring, we’re driving, we’re listening to issues on our headphones, we’re watching issues, we’re filling up the little areas by checking our telephones.

This isn’t mistaken — it’s a really human tendency to need to be busy, productive, filling each house with one thing helpful or entertaining.

However what if we may let ourselves develop into quiet?

What occurs is one thing magical: we begin to uncover a brand new means of being alive, and a deeper expertise begins to disclose itself to us.

What does it imply to develop into quiet? There isn’t a easy reply to this, however listed here are a few of what I’ve been studying:

• It means slowing down for at the very least a couple of minutes, bodily — chorus from transferring round doing a variety of issues, chorus from doing a bunch of duties in your laptop or cellphone, however as an alternative simply sit or come to some type of stillness or slowness.
• It doesn’t imply you should meditate — although in fact that’s one technique to do it. As a substitute, you can go for a quiet stroll in nature, or sit watching the sundown, or lie in a hammock and simply really feel the breeze.
• Transfer away from know-how, at the very least for a couple of minutes. Disconnect. Let go of studying and listening as nicely. Simply sit nonetheless or transfer slowly, not attempting to get something finished or devour something.
• It means you let go of being productive or being entertained. You don’t want to realize something, show something, be excited. You let go of those sorts of compulsions, even for a couple of minutes.
• It means you don’t have to really feel a sure means, or keep away from feeling a sure means. For instance, lots of people need to really feel productive, competent, entertained, so we do no matter we are able to to get these sorts of emotions. Additionally, we don’t need to really feel bored, lonely, unhappy, helpless … so we do every part we are able to in an effort to keep away from these emotions. Turning into quiet means we are able to permit ourselves to really feel nonetheless we really feel, simply permitting it to be our expertise. This offers us a freedom for all times to be simply as it’s, and for ourselves to be simply how we’re, nonetheless we’re feeling.

Stillness and quiet aren’t the sexiest issues, the place you can also make some huge cash or get a bunch of followers or viewers. We don’t often notice we’re craving quiet. However in my expertise, that is the place the deepest expertise of life lies, within the quietude.

What may you hear within the stillness and quiet? What life has to say.

“In stillness, the world is restored.” — Lao Tzu