Do you ever ‘just be’, taking the time to stop and be still? You’re probably thinking it’s a time to self reflect and be thinking about the tasks you need to complete, the deadlines looming, or the chores that need to be completed in the house – no, I mean, just ‘be’, the act of not doom scrolling, or having the TV on, I mean stopping, and living purely in the moment.
The act of not taking that photo with your phone when outside looking at the most amazing sunset or sunrise, trying to capture it on your phone that you are unlikely look at again until you need to make some storage space. Have you tried stopping and breathing it in, taking the whole environment and space as a mental picture. A photo on your phone is less likely to re-lived, but a mental picture you can take away and re-find yourself in later.
That moment where you relaxed on the sun lounger, you noticed the beautiful cloudless skies and got out your phone to capture an image of the blueness against the palm tree green, when instead the real moment was the heat of the sun giving you the amazing feeling of a cuddle and balance, the feeling of peace with yourself. That memory of when someone asks you how your holiday was, or other occasion, you find yourself coming back to that memory of just be-ing.
Prior to starting your studies, whether this is learning new materials or revising materials you have been through in preparation for an exam, do you find some inner peace first, some stillness? Do you come home from work and set yourself a target of completing XYZ before you go to bed as you really need to get certain questions covered before the next class or mock paper? How efficient do you find that time, in reality? Were you able to turn off your ‘working’ mind and deeply focus on the task at hand? How does your study space look – is it noisy with items that are unrelated, nik-naks of random purchases?
Prior to starting your next study session, try ‘stopping’ and ‘just be’, even if just for a moment – accepting that the next hour or so, is just for studies, and everything else is unimportant – it can wait! Release everything off your shoulders and away from your mind. Accepting that this time is just for you and getting towards your next goal can pay massive rewards to your concentration levels.
This blog post is a reflection of the book “Stillness is the key” by Ryan Holiday, which looks at the ability to think clearly, avoid distraction and conquer impulses in decisions. It contains great real world examples of how influential figures find that moment of harmony in a time where clarity of thought is required, for example Winston Churchill and his love of bricklaying, or the rose garden that JF Kennedy found himself in at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The essence of these examples is that clarity of thought comes when you can stop, be still and just ‘be’ in the moment. Deeper learning and appreciation can also then take hold.