This world is frantic. We’re forever running around; either with work, family, children etc etc. So how do we find our peace, our quiet, our stillness?
I’m thinking about this type of thing after reading Matt Haig’s current bestseller Reasons to Stay Alive. Now that is one cracking read. Even if you haven’t experienced any mental health issues, it’s still beneficial to everyone in order to scratch the surface of what someone might go through at the hardest points of their life. The book is full of tidbits of advice and ways to change your thinking. After I turned the last page, closed the book, and got over the initial ‘bloody hell’ feeling you can sometimes get after a good read, I became increasingly conscious of all the things I do to calm myself or relax. Of course, reading is one of them – more of an escapism from stress, but mostly I just need to be still. The image above shows the sea front in my home town. This has always been a place ‘where I go’ when needed. A space to take in the fresh air (well, the freshest of air we can get nowadays), and to compartmentalise my thoughts.
When those moments come when life can get that little bit too crazy and there’s perhaps no thinking space, stillness is the best route I can take. And I’m not talking about being frozen, rigid, or mute. Just time to breathe; in, out, in, out. To let my shoulders drop, and to feel my spine straighten out, to look outside of myself and tune into life. That’s the solution for me. Hope you can find, or already know, your calming effect.
So the darkness shall be the lights, and the stillness the dancing.
T.S. Eliot
Nicola Williams 