Sitting Still—The Cure To Humanity’s Problems

I was in a monastery in South Africa. Twenty years old, alone in a room, staring at a framed Jesus on a cross in agony. There was nothing else on the walls. No TV. No Wi-Fi. Smartphones were years away. It was me and the room. Thoughts and emotions. Nothing else.

I tried to sit still but couldn’t. I paced around the room while I sighed and hummed and talked to myself.

My brain yearned for distraction. I wanted music or a show or a conversation. I didn’t train for this.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal talked about this very thing:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

All Of Humanity’s Problems

This is quite the statement. Really? All of humanity’s problems from the inability to sit still and alone in a room? I’m not sure it’s fully true, but it connects with my soul.

You are busy. I am busy. Busy we are. (That is a haiku?)

Do you ever ask yourself why? In desperation, we run from task to task. We are chasing after something. We hope the accumulation of things and accomplishments will give us fulfillment.

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Henry David Thoreau.

Desperation is the right word, isn’t it? We are desperate for something to numb our pain or give us a new feeling.

Is this the root of humanity’s problems—a frantic and desperate rush to achieve and produce and gain status? Maybe, because this desperation leads to:

Distraction

You get a free and restful moment to sit down. In the first 60 seconds, you habitually reach for your phone to check the news or Twitter feed or scroll through some photos.

Instead of focusing on priorities, we distract ourselves. It’s impossible to break away from the allure of our phones and be alone.

Our phones are miracles. Our phones are cells. We are imprisoned. (Another haiku? Am I doing this right???)

Missing the Beauty

There is life happening every moment that, get this, we are ALIVE. In our frantic rush to do more, we miss the beauty happening around us. We miss the hilarious interruptions from our kids. We miss the beautiful tree outside the window and the gift of food and the sound of crickets.

Instead of being aware, we are blind. This is it. Life is now, not in the distant future, not happening when we get that thing. This is it, but we are missing it.

Living Without Intention

Life is complex and confusing. Often we swirl in this vortex of chaos. We allow ourselves to be a part of the complexity, instead of taking time to reflect and be intentional.

Instead of purposeful, we are reactive.

These consequences change us. We lose our grip on our purpose. The solution is simple, though. Difficult, but simple. Every single one of us has the chance to grow and learn how to release our addiction to noise and distraction.

The Solution

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” Thoreau

Thoreau was deliberate with stillness and solitude. He left the city and the comforts of society and moved into a quiet cabin in the woods. For this, he became known as the father of minimalism.

Thoreau was not the originator of these concepts. Humans have always dealt with busyness and noise and distraction. Stillness and solitude are ancient ways that we have learned to fight the noise.

Slowing down and being still are the keys to living deliberately.

You don’t have to move to a cabin or become a monk or suck the marrow from bones. Here are some simple ways to practice these concepts:

• Morning stillness: Wake before others and spend some moments without a computer or phone.
  
• Monthly solitude: Take a half-day or day and go hiking or the beach and reset.
  
• Phone breaks: This could be a daily or weekly practice. Set boundaries and times where you keep the phone in another room.
  
• Sabbath: A weekly day to stop all work, to rest, to delight in the beauty around.
  
• Nightly examen: Take twenty minutes to be still and reflect on the day.
  

The Call

Instead of reacting to every piece of news or notification, imagine:

• Being able to reflect on your life and your day and your relationships.
  
• The patience that could grow as you distanced yourself from distraction.
  
• How hyper-focused you could be on purpose and calling, without being pulled in thousands of directions.
  
• Noticing the beauty in each slow and quiet moment.
  

Would this fix all of humanity’s problems? Maybe not. But people would be less anxious and desperate for the next thing. Less eager to step on others to climb to the top. Less fidgety. More content.

You are the only one who has the power to make a change like this.

• Tech companies will not do it for you—they need your attention.
  
• Your family and friends will not do it—they need your time.
  
• Work will not do it—they need your energy.
  

What are you going to do?

What daily practices can you set to break from the chaos? What boundaries do you need for your devices?

If you want to live deliberately, it’s time to be still.

---

Sign up for my writings in your inbox: