Within this image, I find interesting contradiction:  here is a magnificent sky – an  artist’s dream – offering shades of orange, apricot, gold and misty blue through to turquoise and filled with cloud stories that offer a mix of serenity, joy, peace, hope, turmoil and maybe the threat of storm.  Yet dominating the picture is the massive satellite tower!  Fashioned from metal, rigid of necessity and visually eclipsing nature, it generates the power required for we humans to technically communicate with each other.

Yes, we enjoy technology.  It’s remarkable.  It’s functional.  It’s useful.  It’s almost reliable.  But in this world cluttered with devices, gadgets and related ‘stuff’ that brings into being all that spills from the communication tower…

…maybe we are not truly communicating with each other at all.  

We can text and email, trawl the web and exchange images ad infinitum but maybe we know deep down, that technology leaves something wanting.

Human communication is an abundant, natural life-giving resource.   From the development of language, the gift of speech and a time when pen was literally put to paper, we can communicate in ways that surpass other life forms – and surpass technology.    We can reflect, discuss, explain and project possibilities.  We can share (from the heart) feelings, actions and reactions.  We can assist ourselves and others to grow through fears, ideas, joys and sorrows, humour, laughter and tears, wisdom and creativity, art and literature and ultimately, our human expression of love.   

But there’s more:  our verbal messages, while achieved through articulation and diction, also include the non-verbal:   the tonal and emotional quality and volume of voice; and the physical postures, movements, gestures and facial expressions at the time.   No amount of emojis can meet that criteria!

And now another very important communication skill! The power of touch.  A simple handshake can offer a profound indication of connection, confidence and trust while sometimes perhaps, the handshake provides the opportunity to convey sincerity, emotion and discretion.

The touch of compassion too, is significant.  When someone is distressed, a reassuring hand on the shoulder to calm and encourage, can bring a level of comfort when words fail.

So what about hugs?  A genuine hug is a precious gift.  Family hugs always bring families together but especially in good times and in times of distress. 

Where human hearts become linked in powerful communication, alas, there is nothing in technology to truly offer that. 

Thomas Stearns Eliot wrote frequently and insightfully about stillness … “so the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing … I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing… and more.

Eliot’s thoughts are well worth pondering – and pondering even more the significance of absence as the solution to a better understanding of life.  In Stillness Meditation Therapy we offer the skill of simplicity and absence as the ultimate step in change, growth and of course, finding freedom.

“Teach us to care and not to care, teach us to sit still”. T.S. Eliot

Yet still our world knows war and terror, with thousands seeking refuge in safe lands – so much trauma and sorrow.

Yet on a far smaller scale as individuals, sometimes it can be challenging to gain and sustain the strength we need ourselves, simply in daily living.  Life challenges of many varieties exist and enter all people’s lives.  These challenges are seen as ‘stress’ meaning worry, lost energy, mental burnout, confusion, with rampant life limiting anxiety and shades of depression.  

Let’s think, then, about absence – the missing piece in the puzzle of life.  The concept of absence may mean new strengths to recognise, develop and practice.  Let’s think about developing the practice of an undisturbed mind to better manage such stress; to differentiate what’s really important; to increase confidence and gain better health and energy and to shore up the strength to persist when trouble brings great pain. 

                                                                                                © Pauline McKinnon, October 2022

“In this, Stillness Meditation Therapy, the full meditative experience is beyond the relaxation of the body and mind, beyond the transcendence of discomfort.  What is it then?  Is it something strange and unnatural?  No. There is nothing strange or bizarre about it at all.  Nor is there anything dramatic or exciting.  Do not expect ecstasy or any outlandish distortions of the mind.  Expect rather the experience of deep naturalness.  Utter naturalness.  It is only when this comes to us that we realise that true naturalness is something quite foreign to us in our ordinary life.  Simplicity.  Such profound simplicity that we are almost overwhelmed by it, immersed in it.  And it is easy to become confused by the simplicity of the procedure and what seems to be an absence of a logical basis …”

Ainslie Meares MD (The Wealth Within)

Our regular clients and readers know that it was Dr Ainslie Meares who showed me how to overcome 8 years of life limiting anxiety (In Stillness Conquer Fear).  It is his work that I and my colleagues continue to offer to thousands of others.  With over three decades experience in helping a range of clients of all ages to personal freedom and “a better life”, we welcome your interest and enquiries.

High anxiety in 21st Century

Anxiety is common to all people.  In these challenging times we hear more than ever before of suffering caused by stress, tension, anxiety, depression, anger and a range of related symptoms.

If you or someone you know continues, confused and fearful or has become too reliant on medication or alcohol or any negative coping strategy, perhaps they may welcome this different style of meditation and approach to healing.  Let’s learn to manage negative emotions and live better through discovering the Wealth Within.

                                                                                                © Pauline McKinnon, May 2022

A certain miasma seems to have invaded our collective lives – a kind of invisible mixture of emptiness, complacency and urgency.  This odd mix of energy and lassitude is, for many, accompanied by a strange sense of sorrow; not the grief of trauma or loss but a level of something that halts progress and brings with it a state of bewilderment.

In these pandemic times, there is restlessness, a loss of who we are, who we were and what is expected of us from here-on.  

Change, which has affected all demographics, through all age groups and even our very young children, has overwhelmed life as we knew it.  We have been caught unawares, unprepared, unready for such a devious invasion of our ‘self’.

In this confusion we vaguely recognise a world that has been turned upside down.  With caution surrounding our every move we edge our way into this brand-new year with a level of trepidation that, in some ways, has somewhat eclipsed the threat of the virus itself.  No matter who we are in the hierarchy of society or whatever our role, we are called to realign our thinking.  We are bewildered as we attempt to navigate and adapt to a world of deprivations previously unknown. 

Restrictions in various forms remain inevitable, bringing change and loss and denying freedom. Without the gift of freedom, we feel frail.  And its kin, the treasures of peace, love, hope and joy fade back as adverse emotions surge in confusion, frustration and anger. Personal control has vanished, a discomfort that we’re powerless to ‘fix’ despite all effort.

With such burdened hearts and minds many succumb to the typical effects of exhaustion feeling increased stress, heightened anxiety and the cloud of depression.  What can we do? 

Let us pause, consider, and learn about growth – the paradox of healing – and the power of growth which can conquer emotional challenges. 

It comes in stillness

Take a moment to sit quietly and be still. Allow yourself to experience within that moment, an opportunity to completely ‘let go’.  Especially let go of effort or thought.  Not easy at first.  So perhaps you might pray, if you can, in whichever style of faith you can muster, for a new kind of freedom. Trust those quiet moments as little by little a tiny seed of inner peace may grow enough to bring you – and therefore perhaps others – toward positive change.

Do this – and see what happens.  Beyond bewilderment, from stillness you might capture, if only briefly, a different experience of the power of love.  And a future, not broken but refreshingly renewed.