Be Still And Know…

‘Tis The Season To Be Busy

The holidays are upon us. Regardless of which one(s) you’ll be celebrating, there’s probably a religious or spiritual component to it. One that encourages you to slow down and remember or honor something. Maybe that’s a component that doesn’t necessarily resonate with you, or gets left by the wayside in favor of more flashy, celebratory aspects of the season. I’m going to ask you to reconsider if that’s the case. No, this isn’t a pitch to get you to sign up for my brand of stitched-together biases about how this world works. Rather, it’s an invitation into something more uniting. Something that pretty much every religion and philosophy values, and builds doctrine, ideas, and even holidays around the cultivation of. This is an invitation into stillness.

We live in an increasingly stimulating world, and all that chaos peaks during this time of year. A time when people are running from one event to the next, stopping for errands along the way, and cutting people off in the process, all while lyrics about peace on earth blare from every radio and retail store speaker. This all seems ironic considering many of the holidays we’re supposedly honoring are asking us to actually pause our busy lives and acknowledge something. Instead, so many of us do the opposite. We don’t stop, and we don’t remember.

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.” -Lao Tzu

Be Still…

One of my favorite verses of scripture is Psalms 46:10. It tells us to “be still and know that I am God…” The part about God is particularly important to me, but isn’t necessary to get my point across. I believe the verse would be just as helpful if it simply read “be still and know.”

The profoundness of that message really took hold once I started investing time in stillness. It is, in my estimation, one of the truest truths there is, that being still can and does facilitate the cultivation of deep, personal knowledge. It is an experiential type of knowledge that can’t be gained reading a book or watching a documentary. A knowledge that, if tended to, might actually lead to a little more peace on earth and goodwill toward men. And in a world where it often seems we can only choose between being uninformed or misinformed, the deep assurance of truth that can be found in stillness is as vital as it’s ever been.

And Know…

So what kind of knowledge can be found in stillness? I’m sure there’s as many answers to that question as there are people. But as someone who both tries to prioritize stillness in his own life, and who gets to connect with people after they’ve found stillness at the float center, I have a few things I feel pretty confident giving you in response to that question: be still and know how you really feel and what you really need. Know that peace and contentment already exist within you. Be still and know you are in control of your own reality. Know what you need to do. Be still and know what’s really important to you, and if you’re living in accordance with that. Know whom you need to forgive. Be still and know that you are loved. And if you’re open to it, maybe you can even know there is a God. If you have already found this knowledge, be still and remember. Let that remembering sink that knowledge even deeper, lending you more stability.

This holiday season, whatever you’re celebrating, I encourage you to honor it a bit more in the way it was intended by finding some stillness. By remembering. Or maybe knowing for the first time. Feel free to stop into the float center if you want some help getting there. You can schedule here.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Justin

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