Ten Minutes Of Silence

Few years ago I saw a post on my friend's timeline - she described about sitting in stillness for twenty five minutes. Inspired by her practice, I decided to do it myself. I chose to begin with ten minutes.

The first two attempts to sit still failed miserably in that I was looking at the timer after mere three or four minutes. However, in the third attempt I managed to sit still for ten complete minutes; it was indeed a hugely transforming experience. I could imagine what it would do to me if I did practice this more often. Ever since that first success, there has been no looking back in taking time regularly to sit still.

Firstly, sitting still is a learning process in itself - how we learn to tell our body not to feel restless or resist the still position comes with lot of patience. Secondly, despite a chaotic mind to start with, eventually I was able to draw my attention to a few dominant thoughts. This happened after lot of practice sessions because, initially I just let my thoughts be and breathed normally. As if I surrendered myself during the ten minutes. There was no dictation or even mild interference. This certainly helped.

At some point, I realized that my focus and clarity in life had improved tremendously. One other important realization occurred- we humans are so obsessed with "doing a lot" that, "doing nothing" almost feels like a sin. Nevertheless, it is in doing nothing for a little while that I learned many a lesson hitherto unknown.

Have you tried this practice before?