Stillness as a Spiritual Practice (and How You Can Practice It Even When Life is Anything But Still)
We all know that living at a million miles an hour and functioning on espresso and blue light isn’t ideal, but when you’ve been feeling an inner tug to find some stillness, it can sound like an impossible task.
Stillness has been understood as an important spiritual practice for as long as humans have paid attention to such things, and that’s still just as true today in our world of Slack pings and smartphones and soccer games and Starbucks as it was when Jesus picked a prayerful time alone in the mountains while crowds wondered where he’d disappeared to (Matthew 14:13 and Mark 6:31-32 are two examples of this practice in Jesus’ life).
The question is: how are we supposed to use stillness as a spiritual practice when life stubbornly refuses to be anything but a flurry of various kinds of chaos?
Keep reading to learn why Christians have practiced stillness for generations, how science shows us it’s essential for our mental health, and how you can make room for some in your life, no matter how busy it is.
Why Stillness?
One of my favourite authors, John Mark Comer wrote a book shortly before the pandemic hit called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”. I love how John Mark’s love for Christian writers and teachers and mystics comes through in the everyday way he explains this idea.
Looking back on centuries of Christians who have used stillness as a way to come away from the toxic, distracting, anxiety-producing pace we tend to live at and let being present with God fill their soul with a delightful pause, John Mark wrote this incredible line that pops back into my mind whenever I realize I literally haven’t stopped for anything more than a bathroom break in hours: “love, joy, and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life. And all three are incompatible with hurry…Hurry and love are like oil and water; they simply do not mix.”
Ancient Christians understood that.
Patterning their habits after the example Jesus set, monks, nuns, and ordinary everyday people have set aside time in their day and their week for what the Bible calls Sabbath. The book of Exodus in the Bible instructs God’s people to take one day of the week to rest, the way God rested in the creation story.
Stillness doesn’t just look like taking Sunday’s off, but it’s a great starting point, and the way John Mark explains it opens up the opportunity for a bigger definition of stillness than meditating in a silent room while your family and coworkers respectfully wait for you to experience spiritual growth (wouldn’t that make things easier?).
“The Hebrew word Shabbat [where we get “Sabbath”] means ‘to stop.’ But it can also be translated ‘to delight.’ It has this dual idea of stopping and also of joying in God and our lives in his world. The Sabbath is an entire day set aside to follow God’s example, to stop and delight…Because the Sabbath isn’t just a twenty-four-hour time slot in your weekly schedule; it’s a spirit of restfulness that goes with you throughout your week.”
How different would your mind, body, and soul feel if you lived with that spirit of restfulness and delight even when you’re actively moving through a full week?
The Science of Stillness
It’s funny how we sometimes describe things we do while distracted or without stopping to pause and redirect or focus as “mindless”. Mindless eating, mindless scrolling, mindlessly driving home without registering the turns you took almost on autopilot.
With the concept of “mindfulness” becoming mainstream in therapists’ offices and classrooms, more and more studies have begun to find out that moving from mindless busyness to a mindful awareness and purposeful stillness helps you perform tasks more effectively and experience less stress.
Being still, not moving or not moving quickly, and finding pockets of silence (or even relative silence) helps our mental and physical wellness in a lot of different ways, including lowering blood pressure, improving concentration and focus, stimulating brain growth, reducing cortisol (stress hormone), stimulating creativity, improving insomnia and sleep.
Turns out stillness is more important than we realize.
But My Life Won’t Slow Down!
I’m sure we’d all love to grow spiritually and experience more love, joy, peace, delight, and better blood pressure, but what if your life doesn’t exactly include a ton of opportunities for stillness?
I could suggest carving out half an hour in the morning before your kids wake up to be still and start your day slowly and with reflection, or remind you that putting your phone away when you don’t need it, using Do Not Disturb, or moving your email from your phone to your computer can help put your focus in one place, but stillness isn’t the same as singular focus, and the point of spiritual practices isn’t better productivity.
Instead, I’d like to introduce you to a way you can practice still moments in the middle of your real life (and if you do find a way to get away on a few days of spiritual retreat somewhere private or create a morning rhythm that works for you, that’s great, too).
Breath Prayers
Stillness can be created whenever you carve out any length of time for purposeful rest and delight, reminding your whole being of who God says you are and what he promises.
With the ancient practice of breath prayers, you can make space for this stillness no matter where you are and no matter how much time you have (or don’t have).
Engaging in breath prayer is simple:
Choose a verse, phrase, or promise from God that you want to bring into the moment.
As you breathe in, you pray the first half of the word or phrase. Feel free to hold your breath for a moment or two to let yourself linger on it and relax into it.
As you exhale, pray the second half of the verse or phrase. If you’ve chosen to focus on a single word, you can pray the word each time you inhale and exhale.
This style of prayer has been practiced by Christians (and others, too) for generations, and it is a fantastic way to calm our nervous system while speaking life-giving reminders and prayers to our soul.
Example Breath Prayers:
You can create your own breath prayers, but if you want some to start with, these are some of my favourites:
INHALE: Fill me with joy and peace, Lord
EXHALE: As I trust in you.
(Romans 15:3)
INHALE: I will give my cares to you, Jesus.
EXHALE: Because you care for me.
(1 Peter 5:7)
INHALE: Even if _________
EXHALE: God is still good.
(Daniel 3:18)
INHALE: Holy Spirit, be with me
EXHALE: Give me your _________
(Galatians 5:22-23)
Conclusion
There are lots of great ways to start practicing more mental and emotional presence when life is busy, but using stillness as a spiritual practice, a way to refocus and calm your soul and remember God’s closeness to you, is a beautiful way to deepen your trust in him and start reworking some habits of anxiety or unhelpful thoughts you may have found popping up when you least expect them.
If practicing breath prayers brings up any challenging emotions or thoughts, or you find stillness hard to create, talking through it with a Christian therapist or exploring a Sozo therapy session might be helpful.
No matter how you find it, you will never regret taking time to be still.
Your soul will relax and expand, your body will breathe a little easier, and your mind will start to quiet down.
Even a few breaths at a time, that sounds pretty good to me.
