December 11, 2023

Creating Stillness When You Need It Most - PHH 134

39 minutes

As I look back over 11 years of blogging and podcasting, there are some trends I notice, topics I talk about with regularity and even predictability according to the seasons. Of course, it’s not a surprise that in December one of the topics that is on my mind - and I’m guessing on yours too - is about keeping your sanity during the holiday rush. Last week’s podcast, The Christmas Snowball, episode 133, dealt with the holiday music onslaught, and a few episodes before that, episode 130, I talked about preventing overwhelm. Timely topics, yes, but today, I’d like to look at this from the other side. I want to talk about stillness.

Here’s an example of the value of stillness. I was in an opera orchestra rehearsal with a conductor who was famous for his temper. There were days when he was complimentary to the players, but on the days when no one could do anything that pleased him, he was not shy about venting his displeasure. Sometimes the entire orchestra fell under his wrath; sometimes it was one particular player. Obviously, this could make rehearsals less than pleasant.

One day as he ranted at the entire orchestra, you could feel the collective blood pressure rise. In that moment, each of us had to decide how we were going to bear up under his words. Would we let it affect our playing or our mood? Or could we let it go and just continue to do our jobs? That was the day I got one of my favorite compliments. When we finally got to a break in the rehearsal, the double bass player next to me leaned over and told me how glad he was to be next to me because I was like an island of serenity in the middle of the chaos. I don’t think I was ever complimented on my serenity before or since, but his comment showed me the value of creating the calm you want, of not reflecting a negative environment around you, of stillness.

Stillness is something that is in your power to create. You may have tried before without much success, but I think the strategies that we will cover today will give you a new approach. We aren’t going to start with meditation or breathing or giving up caffeine or any of those things. We are going to start from the outside and work our way to the core of the matter. I’m going to show you how to create stillness first in your hands, then in your mind and finally in your heart. And who doesn’t need that kind of stillness now or at any time of year?

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: