Journal Power: Being Still

This is a post about how we can use our journals to go deeper into being still. 

Why would we want to be still? In our culture, we tend to equate stillness with boredom: no movement, no noise, nothing doing. We tend to prefer action, movement, stimulation. 

But for many of us, being still now and then is extremely important. In addition to the still hours when we’re sleeping, we need times when we’re able to be awake yet silent and unmoving, in a quiet place. Some people meditate or pray, or go somewhere with a view to contemplate, or listen to peaceful music. 

Others journal. 

You can create your own silence when you journal, even if the world around you is noisy. All day long, you interact and respond, go and do, get there and get it done. When you sit down with your journal, you enter a different, opposite place, where it’s all about listening intuitively. 

If using journaling to be still is new to you, try it like this: 

1. Be sure your body is as comfortable as possible.
2. Count your breaths for a minute or so.
3. Make contact between your pen and the journal page. Let the pen drift across the paper, with no express aim or thought.
4. Let the scribblings begin to shape words or pictures, in their own good time.
5. When you slowly become aware that your awareness has been absorbed by the journal, excluding the outside world, take a brief moment to savor that attention and then put down your pen. 

Please don’t think this is vague or woo-woo. As they say, “What can’t be said, can’t be said; and can’t be whistled either.” You have to actually try out this sequence to realize its power. 

There are a great many benefits to countering the craziness of everyday life with periods of being still.

• We give our bodies, our muscles, a break.
• We calm and center our helter-skelter thoughts.
• We allow a moment for the spirit to enter.
• And we habituate ourselves to mindfulness, a widely recognized aid to healthy functioning. 

Journaling’s power never fails to meet the need. Sometimes I wonder, is there anything your journal can’t do?

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A cool tool for your stillness journaling is to use my book of quotes. Just read one and let it dance around your thoughts as you journal. This kind of prompt can produce deep stillness quickly! Download the ebook for free.