For everything there is a season, and a season for everything. We live in a place where the very thought of doing absolutely nothing for any length of time is beyond our imagination, but also perhaps a dream come true.
There is a great deal of life available in the nothingness that we too often overlook. Thoughts can heal our hearts. Silence can soothe our soul. Listening to the sound of our own breathing is now understood more widely to bring us back to our core.
Unknowing
We don’t have to describe it, and often can’t describe it fully. To me, the nothingness in the most profound times have a smell, a color, a sound that can’t be explained to others. The seeds of ancestry are but a whisper in our genetic ear for example. But, we’ve learned how we carry the memories and emotions of our ancestors in our DNA.
We don’t have to fully know the science behind that knowledge in order to feel a connection to it. In that void of the unknown, knowledge quietly sits, in waiting for us to discover it for ourselves.
Quiet
We learn the most about ourselves in our quietest hours. Right before falling asleep. Upon awakening.
- What thoughts run through your mind?
- What honest truth whispers in your ear?
- Those thoughts or emotions you’d never reveal to the world.
- Do you worry that someone will know something about you that you wanted to keep private?
What you think about most, owns you. What you can’t stop thinking about controls you.
Are you scared of those thoughts or feelings? Is that why you are the way you are?
To be fully, actually present in your authentic self means that you make peace with your darkness. You celebrate your nothing moments. You create a sacred space in which to sit with yourself, alone, in the silence of your mind in order to tap into who you were meant to be.
Meaning
Meaning happens in that quiet, nothing space. Purpose may or may not come. A complete lack of fear of that truth is what sets you free. When we are civil and kind, but not fearful or forward with our belief systems, we are living in our authentic truth. It’s a beauty that’s as hard to describe as the touch, sight or feel of a bubble. Iridescent yes. But consistently fragile.
Humans are always hoping to hold onto something for longer than it wishes to be held onto. We need loud to prove ourselves to the ‘group’. We need proud to prove ourselves to ourselves. We need something to prove our value to the world at large.
What if, just for today, we owe ourselves a full day of nothing. No proving. No explanation of our time. No controlled thoughts, or emotions. Just … be. All day. Start with an hour. Work up to a full day. Be as you please. Become familiar with your soul. In the quiet lucidity of your own soul. That iridescent sacred space we all have available to us. That is where love lives.
Peace and quiet
Karen
About the Author: Karen Henry [Daly], MA CRM owns Henry Healing as a holistic well-being practitioner and writer. She’s a former university professor and current scholar practicing the infusion of positive, existential and community psychology.