Quiet the Mind (Part 6)
I appreciate the many comments and insights offered by subscribers during this series on quieting the mind. In this message, I will share some of those comments.
As you will recall, I previously offered the suggestion of spending some time each day sitting quietly by yourself. One subscriber offered this alternative:
“I found that if I sit where I can look at nature it helps to make the quieting easier. I may pick up a leaf to hold and examine or look at the clouds or tree tops….feel the wind on my face etc…I find it easier to be still that way than when I am in the house and have the items around me that are part of the busy part of my life.”
This is an important point. There is no set way to spend time being quiet. You don’t have to sit inside. If being outside while focusing on something in nature works better for you, by all means do that.
In response to my message on the importance of making a commitment to quiet the mind, one person offered these insights:
“Quieting the mind is a journey that one must be willing to sacrifice for. Because it does change your life and who you are — to who you were meant to be. For some that is a scary thing because our true self comes out and sometimes we have to let go of our old self and go through the changes. And sometimes change hurts too much. So we pick and choose what we want to change and what we don’t. Quieting the mind doesn’t work that way. In order to quiet the mind, you must be willing to change all that is required of you.”
Here are excerpts from an email I received from a subscriber who used the principle of a quiet mind in an athletic competition:
“I play competitive squash and have always had difficulty living up to my own potential. Last week I was scheduled to play the second ranked player in my local competition. I had been playing well and was undefeated to that time. We started and the game was tough. I lost the first by one point. At this stage I normally would get upset, berating myself for losing. Then I thought of your articles. I decided to ‘quiet my mind’ and simply be in the present focusing on only what I wanted to do in the instant.”
“All of a sudden I experienced an exhilaration I have seldom known. I was scarcely aware of my opponent as a person. I saw only the ball and I didn’t ‘think’, just played the game. The effort went out of it and the match was soon over. I won comprehensively. At the end of the match my opponent said, “That was the best match I can remember. I don’t mind losing. You were much better.” I didn’t tell him I had a secret advantage. I was just there, just me, not my mind, no noise in my head, no emotion. I wasn’t even joyful that I had won. I was simply there. I have long known the importance of being there, but this is the first time I have associated it with the quietness in my universe.”
Isn’t that fascinating? And it makes an important point about the practicality and power of a quiet mind. A quiet mind helps us in ALL areas of our lives – in business, in sports, in making decisions. When the mind is quiet, and we are fully present, we demonstrate skill and mastery at higher and higher levels.
On the topic of SURRENDER, I received many emails. Everyone who commented recognized the benefits in surrendering, but expressed the view that it is difficult, if not impossible, to surrender COMPLETELY. They said that they could only do a “partial” surrender.
Of course, I am in the same boat with you. To surrender totally is quite a challenge.
The conditioning of the mind and ego are very strong and they don’t easily accept total surrender. With total surrender, the mind and ego are left with a very limited role. The mind and ego fight when you try to write them out of the script.
Even if we can’t surrender control of everything in our lives, I think it is worthwhile to surrender the majority of our concerns and begin to trust God. As we see our lives working out well in those areas where we have yielded control, we will let go of more and more. We will come to recognize that it is far better to dive into the unknown and trust in God — than to place our trust in our limited mind, which has disappointed us again and again.
In the next message, I’ll be offering more suggestions for quieting the mind. Thank you for your enthusiastic support of the messages in this series.
– Jeff Keller
(c) 2008