Like so many of us, I have lived my life in the constant busy-ness of getting things done, doing stuff, ticking off ‘to do’ lists, a life of constant, relentless, often exhausting, driving motion and activity.
At the moment I am taking a rest after a year of my body telling me I am in this same old driving force I have lived in for over seventy years. Now it is for me to really take notice and sort myself out, and so I am taking space and time to listen to my body.
Today’s living has been awesome and amazing because I have done just that.
There was nothing pressing in the day except an arrangement with my partner to go to the Wildlife Reserve together when we were ready. I rose early and joined an exquisitely gentle online pelvic floor exercise session. I focussed deeply in this session and reached a place within myself I had never been before.
Afterwards I felt a settlement in myself, and a stillness, so I took my stillness to the Bird Reserve rather than the other way around when I used to go there to seek the stillness.
It was a beautiful day. We found ourselves ready to leave at the same time and took the journey steadily. My partner drove; I was very aware of my body and allowing it to inform me of my feelings, movement and posture. I took my time to assemble whatever I needed for our walk around the lakes, and we set off.
What happened was truly amazing for me. It is a very still environment, especially on a day with no wind, and yet there is so much movement within it. Being in connection with my own stillness, I was able to observe the movements of nature around me in a more intimate and totally connected way, how very often nothing seems to be happening, but very subtly the scene in front of me is changing all the time.
As we were walking a path, we met a couple who commented that there was seemingly “Nothing much happening today.” Their comment brought the awareness of the busy-ness and buzz of my ‘former’ life, where there always had to be some thing happening so I could be affirmed in my constant doing. This contrasted with all that we could feel about the stillness, and natural movements of nature within it; where nothing was conscious doing but all about responding from the natural evolution of each creature, – as revealed by the non-stop sound of birds singing their Spring songs, the hundreds of pale damsel flies of utmost delicacy, a peacock butterfly and many insects. There was a cormorant on the other side of the lake, swans and a grebe. Everything was teeming with life in its own rhythm, beautifully interweaving. Nothing like the eager anticipation of the couple to have an exciting experience, an emotion so out of tune with the surroundings.
From my own interior stillness, I was so aware of every movement within the greater stillness of the whole.
For an hour we sat in a hide, just observing and feeling how, within the stillness, there was always a natural and rhythmic motion. The pace was slow and almost imperceptible. You could be aware of birds in one place and the next time you looked for them they had moved somewhere else. It was like a slow dance as they responded to their needs and the environment. Occasionally swans or geese would take off with a flurry of faster motion and then everything would settle again.
I learned so much from observing this and was aware of the reflection it gave me. It kept coming to me again and again, the natural movement within space.
Two geese were swimming side by side, and we were so acutely tuned to the rhythm of nature that we both felt the vibration in our own bodies as they prepared to take off into flight in total synchronicity; we felt what they were communicating, they knew, we knew. Then there was the moment when two swans began their mating dance before turning away from each other. It was so brief we could have missed it, but by that time we were also so connected to each other we both saw it.
Then another couple walked into the hide and said there was “Nothing happening out there today.” I wondered what they were expecting and guessed it was something sensational – some rare bird like a kingfisher…? I recognised this individualistic and possessive emotion from my former life when I needed that kind of buzz to make me feel alive and fulfilled, and fill what felt to me like blank boring moments when in truth it was I who could not be still.
I realised how we go about life with so many expectations of what we want to see, something that gives us that ‘buzz’, and so we miss the precious simple moments that are there for us to experience all the time and give us an inner, stillness-based joy.
All day I walked with this stillness inside me being aware of my movements, staying consciously present, never letting stray thoughts come in, and it felt exquisitely beautiful, and so much else came to me to be observed, I could not be bored for one moment. The day flowed; when we felt to eat, we stopped and ate, when we felt to go home, we returned to the van.
The reflection from the whole day brought home to me how possible it is to live this way every day in everything we do, if we come from our inner Stillness.
I am WORKING with this every day. If I allow thoughts and emotions in, I can still go into drive, which can take me out of this place of connection with myself. However, I can reconnect, whenever I choose to, with the heavenly feeling that I felt by the lake. The commitment to honouring my awareness, my sensitivity and my purpose of profound connection is the way I can stay alive and vibrant till the day I die, without the drive and excess busy-ness of my former life.
My life now from the outside looks like I am retired, doing nothing. I have no job, I do minimal volunteer work, but every day, wherever I go, I endeavour to connect with whoever I meet and bring all that I am to whatever I do and say. I might seem to have no particular purpose; you could say I have retired but, take this day I just lived, present with myself, aware, sensing, feeling, receiving, open to whatever occurred, that shows me I certainly have not retired from life. This is my purpose now, to stay in connection to myself, all that surrounds me, and the Universe. I am no longer driven to seek the buzz and the stimulation of my earlier days. Rather I now live in the observation of life from a profoundly connected inner Stillness. That day at the lake confirmed for me how Nature works with the deep underlying Stillness I have always felt and now recognised as that same Stillness in my own body.
I now live more and more often from this profoundly connected inner Stillness and it feels natural, exquisite, even divine.
By Joan C., UK.
Further Reading:
Stillness: a return to being
A Relationship with Stillness
Nature: The Ultimate Reflection
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Allowing space seemingly eliminates any time restraints, thus our movements🚶🏿 become something that provides energy for our bodies as if we have had a sleep.
Joan, I understand now that if we have blank and boring moments we are not connected to the universe, because if we were connected we could never say that being a part of the universe is blank or boring.
❤️Awesome Joan, so much of the world opens to us when we are prepared to be in our “stillness” and once connected to, we are forever deepening in our ability to feel the internal 😇 ‘divine’ settlement as you have shared❤️.
“so I took my stillness to the Bird Reserve rather than the other way around when I used to go there to seek the stillness.” A beautiful reflection and one mirrored by the reflection of clouds on still water.
I can relate to the busyness, the endless tasks, the work to be done – a life lived doing so much and being so active that there is no time to stop and feel. I am still learning to change this but it is like asking an oil tanker out at sea to change direction and come home – the turn around takes a little longer to do because of the momentum that has carried it half way across the ocean. Thus I call this a work in progress.
Nature is one of our most beautiful and powerful reflections of cycles and rhythms, of stillness/repose and motion in balance.
Joan, what a gorgeous sharing – so picturesque I felt like I was there with you by the lake watching the birds and the flow of life and nature, and the vibration and reflection that nature offers to remind us of what we can tune into within.
How supportive is gentle exercise and walking for our bodies as they respond magnificently and deepen the stillness we are ‘moving in!’ as you have shared Joan.
The rhythm of nature reflects to us so much more than we realise until we connect to such stillness. SO much so that we can completely overlook it’s grandness to the point we can describe it as ‘not much happening out there’.
Well said Michael – we ignore the elephant in the room and complain there is none to look at.
What a settling read Joan, thank you.
So gorgeous to read Joan thank you for sharing, just reading your blog brings awareness to my own innate stillness.
Our body can’t help but deeply rest when we choose just be there, present in it.
After a busy day that left me feeling exhausted I sat and read this. It feels like a beautiful invitation for all of us to stop for a moment and feel…I can see how much I missed in my life, such as precious moments of feeling the space within me. This is like existing driven by a constant motion in which you and your body are separated. This is how many people are living today, escaping from feeling, in doing mode, but actually missing the preciousness of the present moment…there is more for us to live, another way that honours our true nature as human beings.
Inma we are missing life because we have learnt to live it in the fast lane ticking boxes as we go. Constantly in distraction to escape the feeling of space. When we give ourselves space then the question becomes what do we do with it? We are so unused to having any space in our lives. In space there is stillness and it’s to make friends with the stillness because that is actually what we are at the very core of our being. If we lived life from the stillness that is within us all then life would be very different to our current way of living
Joan just reading what you shared brings me back to feel my pelvic floor and a gentle flow within that feels very still. There is nothing emotional, no stimulating, no fireworks…but confirms what true love is about, the quality we are made of. Thank you
Collectively we are the One Life, there are no appendages, no add ons, no extra bits, we are all encompassed within the totality of the whole, how absolutely glorious is this!
Stillness is always there for us to come back to, then the movement and its purpose is revealed, naturally so
“Not much happening today”, er yes there is, there’s universe upon universe of life happening all around us and all through us all of the time. And to think that we complain about being bored!
Thank you Joan, I loved reading this. I can really feel the beauty of being connected with the flow of life and its universal rhythms. Makes me look at where I’m still seeking wow factors, where I disrupt and disturb life in its natural fullness.
There is a life underneath ‘our perceived life’, a life that can’t be defined by words or known by the intellect, a life that can only be remembered in the depth of our bodies.
I am fascinated by my body and what it can share with me now that I have slowed down enough to be able to listen to what it has to share with me. As you say Alexis there is a depth of quality within us that for the most part goes unnoticed but is always there waiting to be connected to.
The depth of quality within us goes on forever and yet here we are thrashing around on the top. And the reason why we spend multiple lifetimes thrashing around on the top is because we’ve aligned to a consciousness that revels in it’s ability to seduce us into thrashing around for yet another lifetime. And to a certain extent there’s a part of us that’s also happy to thrash about for a little longer as it means that we don’t need to take responsibility for how we’ve chosen to live and also how we’re continuing to live.
Reading your beautiful blog Joan I can feel a Stillness in my body – an acceptance that I am enough simply being.
So True Susan, the stillness jumps undeniably from the words that Joan has shared❤️.
Joan you are amazing. I see so many elderly people who have not taken care of themselves and are in a sorry state because they have not listened to their bodies for years, quite the opposite, they have been in disregard. I love to chat with them about this because the majority are bed bound, which gives them some space to look back over their lives and see what influenced them to make certain choices they now wish they hadn’t. I feel it is great because if we can be honest with ourselves, see where we made the mistakes and know with certainly that we do not want to repeat them, then in the next life maybe they will take more care of themselves so that when they again reach old age they are not wrecked by their life events.
We’ve over stimulated ourselves into a corner. It’s like the Sydney NYE fireworks, each year they have to be even more spectacular than the last otherwise people don’t feel like they’ve been ‘wowed’ enough. We all want that ‘hit’ that wow that momentarily takes our breath away, otherwise we don’t feel like we’ve got our monies worth.
Got to impress more than before is such a pressure. I’d not realised how this pressure compresses the beauty that is naturally there to expand. So whilst something has to wow more than before, this desire/need takes us from expanding to a greater appreciation of what is actually present. Interesting.
Got to impress, run faster, hit harder, be smarter, be funnier, be fitter, be sharper, look better than before, anything to keep us from the fathomless depths of who we already are.
Hi Alexis, I’ve just read this comment again as the lock-down is gradually coming to an end, although its strictures and effects will go on for a long time, and it occurred to me that your statement “we have overstimulated ourselves into a corner” has come to an enforced halt. I observe that many have had to slow down, do without their usual “wows”, find new ways of being in life, and building different rhythms, even careers. The gradual return to something that is being called “normal life” is slow and cautious and feels rather subdued, except in some cases where that is thrown to the wind. We all know this hoped for return by many is never likely to happen, and so we are being given an opportunity to discover what really matters for us and where we find our true joy.
Our movements dictate the energy that we align to and for many of us our movements have been forced to change, which has resulted in plugging into another energetic source. The only thing we have to be very cautious about is whether our movements have truly changed because what I know from my own experience is that in the past I have changed my movements radically but my movements have still come from the same energetic gene pool e.g.replacing smoking pot with strenuous exercise, two radically different ways of moving but both impulsed by the same energetic starting point and so both lead back to the same originating energy. There has been a lot of people talking about ‘finding themselves and another way’ during COVID but this talk can also come from a very conniving form of energy that loves to mimmic the consciousness of the divine. And the tricky part is that the conniving from of energy will never ever let us know that it’s not the real deal.
Life is constantly teeming with life, everywhere all of the time.
When we get caught up in looking for the ‘big things’ in life, the exciting markers, the big achievements, the so called significant events then we miss the absolute beauty and endless depth of life. Life is happening all around us and all through us constantly and it really is a marvel how it all works and that I can feel without even knowing how it all works but simply glimpsing it momentarily. Imagine how mind blowing it would be if we even understood a tiny part of it’s magnificent workings.
It seems to me Joan you are not at all retired you have a full-time job ‘purpose’ which is to walk every day in your stillness and divine beauty so that the world gets to feel what this is like. You have potentially changed the world by your movements of stillness in motion how grand is that.
This simple sentence is so profound
‘Afterwards I felt a settlement in myself, and a stillness, so I took my stillness to the Bird Reserve rather than the other way around when I used to go there to seek the stillness.’
We go into nature to feel and remind us of the stillness that we somehow know lies within us, but feels unreachable. But you Joan have with support found your own stillness within and that is the pot of Gold you have offered all of us. To reconnect to the stillness within then as we go about our day we are in harmony with nature and not living out of step with it.
“The natural movement within space”, how simple and how beautiful Joan and if we were to allow ourselves to move naturally within space then all of our problems would be sorted, but we don’t. All of our movements are unnatural. they are discordant with life and hence result in life being difficult, unbalanced and unnatural. By being governed by the pranic consciousness humanity is moving inharmoniously within the harmony of life and that, in a nutshell, is where all of our problems arise. Change the energy that we’re plugging ourselves into and eh voila life will sort itself out effortlessly and almost overnight.
Joan re-reading your blog again today it reminded me of being in a safari park in Africa where everybody seemed so focused on seeing the ‘Big 5’, (Big 5 being the 5 main animals that most people want to see). So rather than take in the beauty of the landscape it became this intense search for ticking off the ‘Big 5’, so much so that as soon as we’d seen and photographed (as evidence to show others later) one of the five, the group felt keen to move on in search for the next animal on the list. Seeing the animals became just another list to be done and so much magic went unseen as a result. We even found out that some of the guides were placing dead animals for the Big 5 to feed off so that they could guarantee that the tourists would get to see all 5 of the animals.
I recognise that Alexis from the descriptions of the tiger reserves in India which my sister shared with me. It was much the same with the tigers, one species sought for with much shouting and exclamation if one was seen, and all the amazing birds and other beasts ignored. The rangers used to love taking my sister into the reserve as she was still and silent and had an affinity with tigers, and they came to her! On her first visit she saw 13 tigers, unsought and appreciated for their essence. It certainly is true that when we allow ourselves to stay in stillness in nature with no expectations we draw animals and birds to us.
We’ve backed ourselves into a corner in which we don’t think anything’s happening unless it’s ridiculously over the top. When we go to the cinema we want incredible special effects and booming surround sound, we want to sit there and eat ice cream that has no ‘boring bits’ and we want a fizzy drink served in a tank. We love our senses being stimulated and preferably all of them at the same time. Consequently when we’re not being shaken up and rattled around we think life’s dull but as you have discovered Joan there’s so much going on all of the time but we can’t access it whilst we’re either being stimulated out of our senses or looking to be stimulated out of our senses.
Joan there are so many things that I could comment on in your post but I would like to say that your description of your surrounds was sublime. I could feel in my body the timeless quality of the scene that you were describing, you brought the stillness and the beauty alive. So very, very beautiful Joan. From one body to another, communication so much deeper than words.
Yes, how wonderful it is when we feel what is present through expression and vibration of what is truly lived in movement from within our bodies.
I completely agree Joan, movement is communication in truth, we are either moving in sync with God or we’re not and although we may like to think that we’re in sync with God our movements will reflect if that’s true or not.
I am at a loss Joan to know what to say to describe the exquisite beauty and enormity of what you have shared. Best I feel to say nothing lest I reduce in any way the grandness of what you have so eloquently shared.
Everything is before us constantly – yet we let ourselves see only the smallest part and then complain about the lack of love, fun and delight. Instead of short-sightedness, we should have a way to describe living short of our true senses. For this is how so many of us live from day to day.
Absoulutely short on vision as what is going on around us is as plan as the noise on our face and one ☝️ way of is describing what is going on is comfort.
Yes its so wonderful how simple one’s life is once its lived from the inner-most connection that we all have. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, I am aware that connection with everything comes from the simplicity of Being not Seeking
Visiting a nature reserve is an opportunity to gently observe the inter-connectivity of plants, animals, birds insects and the habitat and how they co-exist to support each other. There is symbolism in every movement.
That is so true Mary, nature reflects so much for us in movement and expression. We just have to be aware of the symbolism by giving ourselves the space to observe and feel and learn.
A divinely inspiring blog Joan, thank you for sharing your beautiful experience with us. I too have lived in drive and busy-ness throughout the majority of my life. Now I learning that it is my connection to the stillness that lives within me and nothing to do about the doing. In the past I would sit in nature and feel that stillness as nature came alive before me, feeling so connected to its flow, but it was short lived as I returned home not knowing at the time that, that stillness was also within me. I love how you use the expression of the word “your former life” embracing now a new way of living life from the stillness within, though one that has always been known.
I agree with you Jill that we do not know the quality of stillness that lies within us all until it is shown to us.
And to me Universal Medicine does this by the bucket load so to say. At every turn we are reminded that we are Gods playing at being un Gods. One way we do this is by racing our bodies so we do not ever get to feel the deep quality of stillness that resides within us. Through the workshops and teachings so many of us have re connected to this quality, and by that have come to the understanding that it is a quality of life worth living and not the doing of life that we get caught up in that is so worth the exploration.
The stillness you have reached feels palpable as your writing sings the same tune as what you have connected to deep within. Thank you for sharing that space.
Thank you Joan, it was deeply settling to read. Such a great point about the seeking of stimulation in out-of-the-ordinary moments, instead of connecting to the beauty always present.
Well said Melinda – sometimes what we seek is just in front of our eyes and yet if we are not ready to see it we will ignore it and say ‘nothing happening here today’…
Thank you 🙏 Joan we can all take a leaf 🍁 out of your park and feel the stillness and joy that it brings, so enjoying 😊 our so called retirement has never 👀 looked so good as I can feel the blessings you share wherever you go.
Joan, far from being retired from the life you are absolutely entwined with the pulse of life and through your connection, you provide access and inspiration to others. Is there any other job that could possibly provide more purpose? A living legend and a lived legacy.
Absolutely those who choose to expand their awareness as Joan has shall take what they bring all the way to heaven then return in the same glorious way of living in their next incarnation.
And Greg that’s the way that it should be, with each of us getting closer and closer to God with each lifetime until such time as we completely surrender our bodies back into His and there is no gap between Him and us. Unfortunately what we’re pretty much all doing is living with a wedge between Him and us and bringing that wedge back with us when we reincarnate.
A wedge that we carry like a chip on our shoulder that we are living the GOOD life when we are dismally failing when it come to being Truth-Full in our relationship with Heaven and the Godly essences that we all equally share. We can reconnect to that Truth by realigning and thus starting to be at-least decent and respect-full to each other.
It’s tragic that we have let ourselves go to such an extent that we can’t even be ‘decent and respectful’ to one another. Decency and respect are nowhere near our true qualities, in fact if we were to drop to such low levels of being we’d be kicked out of Heaven!
That is truly beautiful Joan C., to have this understanding of stillness is magic. Go you – you rock.
Stillness is magic, it is the magic of God in activity because there is no such thing as ‘stillness’ in the way that we commonly perceive it to be, as in ‘no motion’ because every-thing is a vibration and that vibration is the Intelligence of God, a body that’s constantly communicating and expanding and becoming a more and more glorious representation of itself and that’s what we’re here to do as well, to become more and more glorious versions of ourselves.