Mental Stillness

What is the #1 skill you could learn that would completely change your life? It would change how you feel about yourself. It would change how you feel about other people. It would change the narrative about your past, present, and future. It is the skill that ultimately determines success and failure. It is the common denominator of significant decisions, events, and people throughout history.

It’s the skill of mental stillness. The ability to clear and calm your mind from life’s noise and distractions. The ability to be still, present, and aligned with the Spirit who created you. The ability to focus and think uninterruptedly even as attempts are made to seduce you off course. This feeling of security and peace no matter what life throws at you is like a puppy sleeping soundly in its person’s arms.

So many great people mastered this skill, some known and many unknown. It’s a key attribute of Navy SEALs with their ability to make life-or-death decisions while under attack or in high-pressure situations. It’s a tenet of many religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Moses had it. David had it. Jesus Christ had it. Muhammad had it. In more modern times, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Zig Ziglar, and Fred Rogers all had it. Contemporary athletes, such as Serena Williams, Tom Brady, and Troy Polamalu, have it. My point is that if you master it, then you’re in good company.

Intrigued? Then kindly let me continue. It begs the question … how do you master it?

Now, I’m a Christian, so I will answer that question from the perspective of a Christian. It’s not the only way to master it, and I respect the teaching of other methods, however, it’s the way I’ve learned it.

It starts with incorporating Morning and Evening Rituals into your days. Each ritual has a framework of questions and statements. To start the ritual, you clear and calm your time through deep breathing and visualization exercises. Once you are in a relaxed, comfortable state, you write in your journal the answers to the questions and statements. Inclusive to the rituals is a daily dose of God’s Word.

There are many ways to do this, however, I use The Family Wins Devotional, which provides a daily New Testament selection read in a beautiful leather-bound book or listened to in a corresponding smartphone app. For any person who is open to a conversation about my life coaching ministry, this devotional will be a gift from me to you as a token of my gratitude for your curiosity. There are no strings attached. Trust this will be a safe space to have a conversation without judgment. Click here to inquire.

The more you incorporate God’s Word into your daily habits, the more able you will be to reset the areas of your life that you want to change. In His Word, God has given you everything you need to make changes and then stay on the right path. It shows you the path to walk on, where you’ve strayed off the path, how to get back on the path, and how to stay on the path. When you’re not in God’s Word, you not learning and facing the truth on a daily basis.

Mental stillness empowers you to do this. Mental stillness enables you to reject all the negatives from your life, i.e., the pain, bad habits, and regrets, and embrace the positive, which is, first and foremost, the awareness that you are lovable and good because you are God’s creation. After this “first domino” falls, it inevitably leads to your neighbor. If we are lovable and acceptable then our neighbor is also lovable and acceptable because we are both loved by the Person who created us in a unique way.

Mental stillness equips you to feed your Good Wolf. Your Evil Wolf (the accuser) wants you to think the worst about yourself, so you will look at your neighbor and see the worst in them. Your Good Wolf (the Advocate) wants you to see the best of who you are so you will look at your neighbor and see the best in them.

When you choose mental stillness, you chose to listen to your Advocate. It’s the one true way to love your neighbor as yourself. Happy Easter.