Sunday Stillness - Finds Silence
Hiya,
How was everyones week?
Mine? Two really cool things happen.
- I don’t know if I was hung over all week from the sweat lodge; but I was chill all week. My week was still busy as always; but it seems to go by more slowly. Can that really happen? Is that what living in the now really is? When you are chill “present” does time slow down? I don’t know…but I’m willing to continue to experiment with it.
- I’m also wondering if the second thing that was cool, was another side effect of the sweat lodge…as I felt my cup was filled up again (maybe even over flowed) from last Saturday’s event. I found silence. I did…I found it. And boy did it tell and show me a lot.
I know most of us are uncomfortable with silence; we feel the need to fill that silence gap when it happens. But, what if we didn’t…what would we hear or learn?
Here are a couple of examples I learned this week with trying out the concept. I stated with a baby step (well, it was a baby step for me); I let silence hang out there for THREE seconds. THREE whole seconds. I know in print that doesn’t seem like a long time; but try it.
One- one thousand
Two - one thousand
Three - on thousand
Or
One - Mississippi
Two - Mississippi
Three - Mississippi
That is a lot of time.
There is a lot to be learned in three seconds.
Example one: I am car shopping (sigh, ugh, fun - insert your favorite thought about car shopping here); and used this three seconds of silence a few times. It was awkward; but I think it might have worked to my advantage. There we were, at the table, with the first offer; as we all know the first offer is just to kick off the discussion. They asked what did I think; I waited the three seconds (which felt like forever; at least I had the paper to look at to help distract me from talking); then, I laid out my offer.
They came back with the second offer; did my three seconds again…but this time it was WAY awkward. And I knew it was awkward for them too; because about two seconds in the Sales Manager said, “Do you need to speak to your husband?”. OH BOY….
Let's just say the deal fell through (more on that another time).
Example two: I was leading a meeting where there were people in the room, on the phone and on webcam. I don’t know what inspired me; but I introduced the three second rule to the meeting. I mentioned with all this technology; when someone is talking and they are finished; lets wait three seconds before someone else begins to talk. Giving time for all the technology to catch up and make sure we don’t talk over each other. Pretty cool right….WOW did it work. I have to tell you, it was one of the more productive meetings I have had in while; when so many people and parts of technology were in play. We finished on schedule and completed all of our desired outcomes. You can believe I’ll be doing that again.
Because these two cool things happen to me this week; I would like you to give them a try and see how they work for you.
Try being in the moment and see if things slow down; but you are still productive.
Try giving yourself three seconds before responding to someone; and see what you hear and or learn.
I look forward to hearing how experimenting with these two cool things went for you.
See you in Stillness,
Kimberly
Kimberly Allard
Founder of practicestillness.com
Certified Meditation Instructor | Reiki Master | Mentor