You hear a lot about stillness these days, about speaking from stillness, acting from stillness, being the stillness. One way to approach this inner stillness is to become aware of its opposite: not motion, for we can experience inner stillness while we are in motion, but restlessness.
Restlessness is the avoidance of stillness through busyness—busyness of the mind and busyness in your life. It is not the busyness itself, but the quality of avoidance that is characteristic of restlessness.
Let us look at three types of restlessness. First there is intellectual restlessness. With spiritually-oriented people, this manifests in the incessant pursuit of spiritual knowledge. To read spiritual writings or listen to spiritual teachings is fine, but the craving for more and more information is a warning sign. It is similar to problem eating; eating is necessary and good, but constant eating is driven by an underlying anxiety. Just so, the restless mind that seems addicted to the pursuit of knowledge may be driven by an avoidance of stillness.
Then there is restlessness of the imagination. Examples would be dwelling on the past, preoccupation with an imagined future, or musing on how things “should have been.” Again, the capacity to imagine the past, the future, or alternative versions of the present is a necessary and good thing, but when indulged in excessively may be a sign of using the imagination to avoid the inner stillness.
Finally, there is restlessness of the will. Because the will is the inclination to action, this type of restlessness manifests as keeping busy all the time, such as in taking on too much work and not giving yourself time to rest. Action becomes an avoidance of stillness when you always have to be busy and feel guilty or uneasy about allowing yourself time to just be.
To move from restlessness to stillness you must first become aware that you are in a state of restlessness! When you become aware of and notice the quality of avoidance in your busyness, whether it is busyness of intellect, imagination, or will, you will automatically begin to slow down and stillness will begin to manifest. At that point you can more deliberately move toward slowing down further, shifting to calming activities such as rest, reflection or meditation.
Meditation is a very effective entryway into stillness. When you meditate you inevitably become aware of the agitation of your mind, but eventually also become aware that there is an underlying stillness you can access, at least from time to time. As you progress, meditation becomes a way of regularly accessing that stillness, in a sense to refresh or feed your connection to it. A caveat: meditation can also be a way of avoiding stillness! When you find yourself trying to force something to happen, working hard at meditating or spending more and more time in, this can be another sign of avoidance.
The real key is to pay attention to your internal state, and to learn to discriminate between thinking, imagining, and acting out of restlessness, and thinking, imagining and acting within stillness. Restlessness feels compulsive and driven, while that which comes from stillness has an ease or naturalness to it. For to “be” in stillness does not mean immobility, rather it is a flowing with the natural rhythm of life itself.
Alan F. Zundel is a counselor, author, and teacher currently living in Eugene, Oregon. His talks are available to download for free at HeartAwake Center at www.heartawake.org.
Alan F. Zundel is a counselor, author, and teacher currently living in Eugene, Oregon. His talks are available to download for free at HeartAwake Center at 