All we can do is listen. It sounds ridiculous, but it's true, just listen. As Ram Dass says, "the quieter we become the more hear."
And it's true.
I didn't always know this. I was filled with chatter, filling space, running my words from one end to the other with no silence in between. It felt easier that way. When I was still, when I was quiet, the fear crept in covering my mind and heart in a cesspool of excuses and distractions. It felt easier to continue this madness than it was to take the time to sort through the terrible habits I'd been avoiding breaking free from.
Eventually, the need for stillness overtook me. I was beaten into submission, and I found myself sitting still and listening.
It took me years to get to this place, one where I could just be. When I first embarked on my journey inside I was a know-it-all asshole. I truly thought I knew everything. Now, I realize how much I still have to learn. It took years of a disciplined practice for me to understand how little I knew.
Learning to be still takes patience, practice and discipline. We don't realize that. As we rush and run and fret and worry our way through the world we neglect the gift of being still and listening. We neglect what it is to let life unfold and blossom without trying to change or fix or manipulate it. We hold on instead of letting go. We fear what is on the other side and so we avoid listening for fear of what we might hear.
Yet, it is only in the silence that truth will unfold. It might not be pretty at first. We shove our darkness inside in an effort to avoid dealing with it. And, in order to get to that beautiful stillness, we have to slay the dragons we've been trying to cage.
It's the change that scares us, taking the leap to the other side, where we let go of our attachment to our pain and suffering and we become the joyful creatures that we are meant to be.
I still work on this daily. It's easier to hold on than it is to let go, but the holding on causes suffering. It keeps us small, never allowing us to expand into our lives, unfolding our strength and love onto the world. We humans have unruly minds. We are like wild horses that need to be broken. In our minds we create the most complex problems out of nothing simply because we don't know how to be still and listen. And we are too scared to let go.
But, we are learning. Every day more and more people step onto their mats. Every day more and more people sit in silence. Every day more and more people learn the beauty of simply being still and receiving, of listening.
The stiller we are the more joyful the world will be. The stiller we are the more comfortable others will be in stillness too.
Peace and Love...xoxoxo