Silence and chaos

 

There is a kind of noise that exists both, outside and within. It’s the chaos of daily life - messages, decisions, stress - and the chaos of the mind - overthinking, reacting, remembering all details...

To avoid that noise or to decrease its volume, we have silence… Not the silence that is the absence of noise; silence as an inner state, a space we can enter even when the world is loud.

As we are living in the age of chaos, noise is part of the pattern… Yes, we could find a place in the mountains, far from all. Or we can resort to silence.

In the midst of chaos, silence is not weakness. It’s strength. It’s clarity. And it’s healing.

Meditation teaches us to return to that inner silence. Just a few minutes of stillness can shift our state. Meditation isn’t about controlling thoughts, but about not being controlled by them. It allows the mind to settle, and in that settling, we begin to hear our own wisdom again.

Silence opens us to hear the real sound, the sound of our inner voice.

Silence also has the power to heal. Emotional pain, stress, fatigue - these begin to soften in the presence of true stillness. Not the silence of suppression, but of awareness, that moment when we stop trying to fix everything and simply sit in silence. At that point, something begins to mend… maybe not externally - the age we live is of chaos - but inside.

Inside there is deep healing, deep awareness, but the beauty of this practice of silence is that it permeates our reality… After all, even in relationships and daily tasks, silence has a role as it brings focus, patience and depth.

In conversations, a pause can be more meaningful than a rush of words. At work, a moment of inner quiet can lead to better decisions than hours of action and discussions.

As chaos is all around, silence is not a retreat from life; it is the key to a better life.

In chaos, it becomes our compass and guide.

Keeping calm…

During the Second World War, a slogan was launched that helped citizens to move on with their lives, despite the hostilities: KEEP CALM and CARRY ON. It comprises two affirmations with different intentions and an incredible effect.

At times of crisis – and that is what we are living – that slogan would be probably very useful, after all calmness has a deep effect on the self by enabling the person to clear their minds and understand what is going on. Maybe a solution is not at hand, but with comprehension, the person can plan, adapt and live better.

Particularly if the crisis is very strong and it turns into chaos, it is possible there is no solution. During chaotic times, the only possibility someone has is to be their own leader, to trust their own capacities and to create a team with whoever is around. Again, calmness plays a definite part, relieving much of the stress and anxiety, empowering. Besides, who wants to be part of a team of people who are not calm, particularly during turmoil?

But, as you are reading this, I am almost sure you are not there yet and the crisis we are all living is not to be labeled chaos. So, this is the training time and you can do a few things:

• Experience silence several times during the day.
• Meditate or contemplate.
• At the beginning of the day, dedicate some time for the self and experience deep calmness.
• At the end of the day, make sure you pack everything up, by putting a full stop to all that happened.
• If you have problems with someone, try and fix the bond between you.
• Be kind to yourself and others.
• Walk in the nature.
• Listen to soft positive music.
• Avoid bad news, without evading responsibility.
• Just be yourself and give space so that others can be themselves too.
• Keep calm, carry on.

Huge changes are happening to you, what to do?

Wow, so much has happened in such a short time!!! But… how has been your response in relation to all those changes?

Maybe fear? I am sure not! But it is always possible you were afraid, let’s say, a bit afraid… After all, a crisis or chaos tends to take off many things and people we care.
 Perhaps you tried to evade or even escape the change? I am sure you would be partially successful for some time. You see, when a change starts, the more resistance it finds, the more it grows, and try to flee is a certain type of resistance.
 It is also possible you rebelled and didn’t want to obey all the directions coming from many sectors of the government and actors trying to deal with the crisis. Or you even went on protesting against them! And yet, the crisis is even bigger now.
 Or you sat down and you reflected upon what was going on. You saw the change through very different glasses, without judgement and a deep positive acceptance.
 It is possible you are already doing something to change whatever is going on around you. Not to fight, as you understand the laws of change and resistance, but you are generating a change yourself.

It is quite conceivable you did a bit of each of the former possibilities, so check the immediate results and visualize the long-term outcome. And change whatever you must change to get the maximum success. Good luck in this wonderful journey!

A great time to be spiritual

Crisis and chaos: that is the present configuration of our world.

Ah, you don’t believe… But it is true. There is at least one crisis in your country right now. Maybe it is ecological or political, ethical or social; it may be incipient, mature or old… No, it is not normal, at least in the past – let’s say, 16^th century – it was quite uncommon and if you look at history records you will see years and years passing by without any mention of a big problem, for a long time and at many places.

Ok, but what is a crisis? A simple definition is an unexpected change that creates a bad sensation in most of the affected people. By unexpected I mean a change people were not ready to face. Probably older times were more predictable and easy to deal.

It is also certain there is chaos at least at a country in your continent. It may be in the form of confusion or a social situation that goes beyond the capacity of that place. Maybe it is a country with so much corruption, which structure is fallen apart.

How to deal with crisis and chaos? Yes, there are many techniques, but as these situations become more and more common why not taking in consideration a very different possibility?

Spirituality may be the solution a few people dare to suggest. It won’t solve crisis or chaos, but it will contribute with a different approach towards life. At one hand, it will minimize their effect on the person. On the other hand, it will help to keep a clear mind and a very sharp intellect, so that a solution is found.

So, whenever you realize you should deal with that crisis and you should be careful about chaos, go and sit in meditation… that is the best and perhaps the only way to tap into one’s own spirituality.

When you do that, you will feel circumstances don’t affect as much as they used to, and you start to affect situations, becoming a real change agent.

About stages of change

Change in nature takes place gradually. In fact, I am not sure there is any sudden change that happens in a natural environment. Well there are disasters, but it could be said they are also part of the change process.

But we, sweet humans, by not being content with that, we started something called civilization and we change everything. Yes, we change the change.

More precisely, we started many centuries ago to manipulate the pace and stages of change, according to personal or collective convenience, creating the times we live nowadays, when we are not sure what will happen next or how.

There are basically four stages in change and all goes through these.

Change is a non-creative name for the first stage. Sometimes I call it Transition, and it indicates soft and subtle changes. In a whole process like the yearly seasons, everyday there is a change in the temperature, humidity and wind, but we are not aware as they are very subtle.

Besides, they are expected. For instance, if the present season is spring, we are expecting that as time passes by, temperature increases, at least after a certain inflection point. And we are ready for that.

For us, we have maybe tens or hundreds of changes in just one day: clothes, hunger-food, hair style, smiley-serious, humor, opinion, tastes, etc. The key here is we are expecting them, so they don’t shock and many times we are not even aware of them.

But at some point there is a crisis. During the year, rainstorms come, snow falls and the weather becomes quite unpredictable. Crisis is a type of change that is unexpected and normally disruptive, quite often is considered as negative – although we could talk about good crisis when all of a sudden, during winter, the Sun heats our day and hearts.

It is necessary to provide the time and space so that the next season will replace the present one.

I don’t know anyone who is not afraid of a crisis, which name by the way in Chinese does have a character with the meaning of danger, but it is part of the stages of change, there is no way to avoid it without avoiding the whole change, and that is very difficult to do.

We need a certain level of preparedness to overcome the mean effects of a crisis. For the worst case scenario, leadership is necessary to help a person or any collective to come out of it. It is important to keep in mind this is necessary, because only by going through a crisis you can move on with the change.

Another point that distresses people is the fact that changes in our human society don’t happen in order, as in nature. That means, crisis can come and go, and come again during the same change process…

The worst part (apparently) of any change process is chaos, when the lowest or highest temperature takes place, or when floods or drought happens. It is totally unmanageable and besides going for a shelter, nobody can do much.

Not even by excelling in preparedness or the best leader in the world can help when chaos comes, and we, humans, try to prevent them. And yet, it is a stage we all have to go through if we want to come out of it and reach the last and final stage.

Transformation, also called metamorphosis, is that point when there is no resemblance between how things were at the first stage and how they ended. Try to explain to a little child that those leafless and dead trees will be soon blossoming with life… It is impossible to imagine it is true, but it is, because after chaos, after the worst part of a change process, when all looks like lost, life comes back again.

As humans, we don’t embrace transformation as we should. After all, to reach that point we do have to suffer in a way, passing through several stages – and different than nature, repeating those innumerable times – until one day we are transformed.

But we should embrace it, as we should embrace the chaos, crisis and the little transitions in life, because they all give us something much more valuable. See, nature will never transform something into another thing that is worse than the previous form.

Transformation always means good. Excellent. Incredible. It means our lives that reached their worst point and look deprived of energy are now totally different and we have another chance to live.

So, instead of fighting against the processes embedded in changes, it is better to learn about them, prepare yourself and use them for the good of many.

Beyond chaos

Have you ever felt you were in chaos and then you were able to leave it?

Chaos is, according to my own thinking, a stage of change. In fact, it is a very important stage as it precedes the final result, which I simply call Transformation.

Let's take sand from a beach... That is a simple change - the sand goes from the beach to a workshop. Then, put fire on it, creating a crisis between all the molecules there. When it reaches the point of chaos, someone will take it and shape it, and you will have a glass, the transformed sand.

When you go through chaos that is good, theoretically. It means you overcame both stages, the simple change (I call it transition) and crisis, and you are about to embrace the final transformation of your life.

Imagine however that our sand is alive. Imagine it struggling when you transport it to a workshop. Imagine it suffering and keeping the fight against the fire that will melt it, until the point where it can become a glass... It is quite possible the sand, or part of it, can escape the workshop and one day, goes back to the soft beaches.

As humans, we are alive. We only go through change if we really want or our surroundings are pushing us and we can't prevent it. And, when it is time for a crisis our struggle will be amazing, we will look for a leader to lead us out of it, or we ourselves will become a leader and help others to leave it. If it does not work, then chaos will come, and again we will struggle and fight for our lives. During a change process, we will make our maximum effort to go back to our comfortable beach...

However, if we act as it is supposed for us, as humans, to act and try our best to leave chaos, aren't we missing something? Aren't we missing the beautiful chance to be a different person or a person with a different awareness?

Chaos is ugly. It hurts. It is not easy, but we can always do something to live through it: we can learn, we can be our own leader and set new goals; we can survive and use that survival as an example to others.

Instead of trying to go back to our comfortable spot on Earth, a new awareness comes from chaos and it is as precious as a pearl...

So, before your next or first experience with chaos, learn a bit more about who you are and your potentials. Work more on your self-leadership and understand the change you are going through, visualize the final outcome of this process and embrace it in your heart.