“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
~ William James
Some days my brain feels like hot buttered popcorn. Slippery darting thoughts popping in and out of my head at high speed, making it difficult to focus on any one thing.
It’s frustrating, annoying and extremely anxiety provoking.
Worse still I usually know what’s led to it, most often when I’ve deluded myself that I have time on my hands and agree to take on a piece of work that turns out to be far bigger than I imagined it to be.
I get no sympathy from my husband or friends.
“Why do you do this to yourself?” they ask.
“Why can’t you just say no?”
My Brittney Spears “Oops, I did it again!” moments being made worse by the familiar knot in the stomach as my anxiety levels climb to fever pitch.
The modern world can be a tricky place to navigate.
There’s always more to be done, there’s no respite for doing good work and the challenge becomes one of trying to stay on track even though you know you’re driving too fast, and at risk of losing control.
Fortunately, I have learned what works to reverse the situation.
It’s about taking time out to be still.
What is stillness?
Stillness is the conscious act of taking yourself off autopilot, choosing to slow down, to reduce the mental clutter gumming up your mind to restore inner peace, calm and clarity.
Stillness enables you to recognise what is worthy of your attention, to know what really matters.
It’s an essential part of stress management, one of the core pillars of lifestyle medicine.
Why stillness is vital today.
1. It counterbalances our over-distracted minds.
Digital distraction is perhaps the greatest contributor to our addled minds. Without adequate safety bars in place, we are at risk of overloading our brains with sensory input through doomscrolling and having too many tabs open simultaneously.
This heightens stress and can lead to popcorn brain, a term coined by University of Washington professor David M Levy in 2011 to describe how chronic high use of electronic multitasking makes slower-paced, real activities seem boring or difficult and also reduces our ability to focus on anything.
Take a look around you.
What are others doing?
It’s almost rare these days to find individuals not engrossed by their mobile devices. Heads down, unaware of others and their surrounding environment.
Our distraction is complete.
We have become intolerant of waiting, for anything. We want instant gratification we want it NOW!
This reduces your attention span. You wanted to watch that new movie, but half-way through, you’re getting twitchy, wanting it to be finished so you can move on to the next task or event.
There are no notifications on your phone, but you’re constantly jumping between apps “in case one pops up”. You are a champion toggler moving between different social platforms and news feeds. You’re craving the next dopamine hit of novelty of a new message, text or video.
In any spare moment you’re drawn to pick up your phone, even when you know there’s no reason to touch it.
2. It reduces stress.
Our nervous system has evolved to keep us safe by recognising when we are in potential danger, activating the sympathetic pathways and the release of stress hormones that allow us to fight, flee or freeze.
This is counterbalanced by the parasympathetic system designed to allow us to rest and digest. Here your heart rate slows down, along with your rate of breathing. Now the body and mind can get on with enjoying that moment of quiet restoration and recovery.
Without it, you’re like Forest Gump, running, running, running with no end.
Lower stress quietens the amygdala the area of the brain associated with emotion and strengthens the prefrontal-cortex where you do all your heavy lifting thinking.
3. It restores mental clarity
A noisy brain finds it hard to discern what’s important, so it treats everything with the same degree of urgency.
Finding stillness allows those competing thoughts to settle. Now you can regain perspective and clarity what to give your full attention to.
Wakeful rest and stillness helps memory consolidation, ideal if you want to retain all that lovely new information you spent all morning working on.
4. It re-enables emotional control
If you’re all of a dither; anxious, stressed and overwhelmed, you’re not going to be in a good place to make the best decisions and at risk of making a (silly) mistake.
Not only that you become more emotional and impulsive. You may say or do things you wouldn’t normally or display your anger, irritation and frustration. Stillness provides you the space needed – like taking a deep breath, to create a safety gap between the provoking stressor and your response.
When were you last truly still?
Is this a place you go to regularly?
What enables you to find the stillness you need to balance your life?
5. It enhances health and well-being.
Taking time out for intention stillness helps to lower general inflammation, protecting you from future risk of cardiovascular or other chronic disease.
Tips for Creating Stillness
1. Choose to create the habit.
As with any habits, it can take time and practice to find what works best for you.
It’s best to expect obstacles or even resistance, because we’re so attuned to our constant busyness.
You can think of it like choosing to go into a lower gear when driving a manual car. (Some of us still have these!) That slow gear forces you to drive more slowly, unless you want to make the gear box scream) and it’s the conscious and deliberate slowing down that leads to stillness.
As with meditation, you mind may fight your wish to go slow, inserting more thoughts and making the experience uncomfortable. Rather than fighting it, get curious to why this is happening and resist the urge to alleviate your discomfort by finding something to do.
2. Choose when, where and for how long.
Stillness can develop anywhere.
Vacations and weekends are great opportunities to slip in a moment or three (why not four?) of stillness.
Being out in nature enables you to find stillness more easily, whether walking quietly though some woods, sitting and looking out at a view or stopping to notice a particular tree or plant you want to take a closer look at. Remember to turn off your phone (or least switch to silent) and avoid the temptation to listen to music or podcasts or other distractions.
Stillness can be found in the quiet of the day before the rest of the world wakes up.
Every morning I take my first cup of tea outside and sit quietly to just be.
Stillness can even be found at work. It’s that moment in between meetings or shifting tasks or getting ready to have a conversation with a colleague. This kind of micro-break has been shown to improve attention and task performance. Just saying!
Forty seconds is all it takes.
Why not take that time to look out through a window onto a green space or look benevolently at your house plant on your desk.
You don’t have to go crazy seeking stillness. Build slowly starting with 5 to 10 minutes and go from there.
This is about putting yourself back in the driving seat, deciding when to respond, using stillness to resist the urge to always be rushing from one task to the next while simultaneously improving your mental focus and resilience.
Be careful though. You may find you start achieving more, by doing less.
When will you be next giving your mind a break to enjoy being still?
If you’re a health practitioner interested in finding out more about how Lifestyle Medicine can benefit you and your patients, we’d love to have you company at LM26. It’s being held in Hobart, November 13th-15th on the theme of The Nature of Health.
Tickets are available here.
