Part 2: Business, Stillness and making it about the Body

In the previous article we talked about stillness – and how this is what every business needs, and what every body needs. 

It is commonly regarded – and indeed taught– that stillness is something we achieve through mindfulness. That we need to take time out and meditate for a good twenty minutes to half hour, quieten the mind and then we’ll have that longed-for reprieve, that calm feeling when the racing inside stops, at least for a short and measured while.

This is not stillness but a state of reprieve. In other words, we get some relief from the quietening of the mind and then off we go again at a gazillion miles an hour. Even though this relief is needed, there hasn't actually been any real or sustainable real change. All we are doing is managing the stress, anxiety and exhaustion, which in our societies today are rife, so that we can get through life.

Stillness can never come from the mind. We’re swimming upstream if we keep trying to quell the mind for more than just a few moments. We exhaust ourselves even more in the process and never get there!

But what is available to us is in every moment, is an inner settlement - when our mind is aligned with the harmonious flow that returns to our body, when we make it about the body. 

Our body is naturally designed to be vital, vibrant and still. Stillness is an inner state of being, one where we feel deeply connected within ourselves, and where the barrage and excess of the outside world does not touch us, even though it may be happening all around us.

So how can we bring this quality of stillness into our lives? It needs to come from our body. 

It is within our physical vehicle that we have the answer. What’s required is for us to start listening to our body, respecting its limitations and vulnerabilities, and caring for it - that is, ourselves, the way we would care for a young baby.

When we do this, our body naturally responds because this quality of stillness is in the very foundation of our body’s intelligence. We become 'full' with the stillness we innately have within us, which can hold us steady in the toughest of situations.

When we nurture your body, we nurture our whole being. As we do this, it is amazing to watch the knock-on effect around us as we begin to move, work and live from a body that is there with us, in whatever it is we are doing.  

We will explore more on how we can live and work connected to our body in Part 3. Stay tuned.