The Sweet Pleasure of a Still Mind

In the thirty years I have been practicing meditation, I have come to know my mind on many levels. I can say with certainty that much has changed.

In the early days of meditation, I realized my mind generated an almost constant stream of thoughts. It was rarely quiet. In my years of teaching meditation, I realized this is common to most of us. Until we develop a regular practice of witnessing the mind, we generally don’t have much idea of what’s going on in our brain, let alone our larger mind field.

The Yoga Sutras defines yoga as the control (nirodha) of the waves (vrittis) in the mind field. Upon the dissolution of the vrittis, the seer rests in their own true nature. At other times, the seer identifies with the form and nature of these vrittis. Although I couldn’t call myself a seer, I knew I was almost completely identified with the form and nature of my thoughts.

I brought our current understanding and regulating my nervous system to the wisdom of the sages. I am amazed at how insights from yogis are as relevant today as they were 5,000 years ago. The content in our mind is different. The processes are very similar.

What has intensified for most of us is that our brain and nervous systems have not adapted sufficiently to manage the stress and sensory stimulation of life these days. Our nervous systems are on orange or red alert much of the time. Our hypervigilance generates a tsunami of catastrophic worst-case-scenario thoughts that our brain doesn’t realize are not actually happening to us in this moment. It’s no wonder we have trouble with self-regulating. And yet, this is still workable.

It is possible for all of us to build resilience and strength in our nervous system. My work is all about that and you can find many resources here on my website and in guided inquiries and courses on Insight Timer. You are welcome to join us for free daily online practice.

As we settle and become more self-regulated, options open up for us. We have times when our mind is quieter. We develop a smooth continuous diaphragmatic breath which signals safety to our nervous system and lowers our level of hypervigilance. Through somatic awareness, we become more comfortable with the sensations and energies in our body of stored trauma with associated thoughts and memories. We are beginning to heal.

I’ve been remembering March 2020 when Covid-19 landed in North America and our world dramatically changed. As practiced as I was with working with my mind and nervous system, Covid was a real and present threat. It changed us.

We also have personal circumstances that are challenging and that we can’t control. Life is difficult. Many people have struggle with fear, anxiety, depression, and addiction. These all affect our capacity to experience stillness in our mind.

One constant is to cultivate the capacity to be kind and compassionate, with ourselves and with others. We are not “in control” of our unconscious mind and nervous system so we could stop shaming ourselves for our survival mechanisms. We respond as we are conditioned based on the neural networks for trust or protection that developed in our childhood.

Many people are in a difficult situation with the mind. Accepting ourselves is a necessary and difficult step. Many people have deeply installed core deficiency beliefs based on our experiences in life. We have to see through those and the shaming talk of the inner critic because they are not true.

We disconnect from ourselves and sadly we are separated from knowing our own basic goodness.

People are both understandable and complex. We are not functioning well and we have the capacity to heal. We can learn new ways of more accurately assessing danger and threat and of regulating our nervous systems.

We don’t have to wait until our mind is completely quiet to enjoy stillness. That is going to take awhile and one part of the mind will always generate some thoughts. One “short cut'“ to enjoying the stillness of our mind is practice focusing our attention away from what is moving (warnings of danger from our nervous system) and noticing what is not moving. Let yourself rest in stillness.

The Cave of the Heart is a beautiful meditation practice resting in the heart center in the light of our true Self.

Layers of Stillness and Awareness takes you directly into stillness.

I wish for you the blessing of moments of stillness that gradually permeate your day and your mind field. Ah, the sweet peace of a still mind.

We go into stillness together. Join us for practice any day 8AM Eastern.