What amazes me most about the human mind is it’s ability to provide it’s own healing. How is it that we can be confused one moment… and wise and enlightened about our circumstance the next? What are the mechanics of this? How do we make such shifts… and more importantly, can we harness this ability?

Making a Practice of Rooting Out the Disturbances in Your Life

In my life, I’ve adopted the practice of examining the disturbances in my life. Whether it be an outer situation that has knocked me in some way or an internal clash, I take the time to address each instance and become aware of what troubles me.

So as part of my daily practice, I take the time to ‘pull out the weeds when I see them’ ( a mentality left over from my days of working at Gardenworld. ) It is either done right there and then or later during my evening reflection-meditation. This may seem laborious to some – of focusing on each disturbance – but my philosophy is “I’d prefer to deal with it once… than to live it again.” This is based upon my ( current and evolving ) belief that each negative incident in my life belongs to a ‘pocket of awareness’ inside me. I may be wrong but until I find a more accurate model to live by, I’ll follow this one.

My practice sounds robotic maybe, but it is actually a fluid practice. One thing is for sure, it takes practice, dedication and responsibility. And even if I am just practicing those things, then that’s okay with me!

So how many ‘personal disturbances’ do I deal with in a day, given the countless life situations I find myself in? One maybe, sometimes none. While it is true my observation is a daily practice, the practice is not about reacting to ‘every little crack in life’s concrete’. That would be a bad habit to get into. I am more robust than that! The practice is not about ‘picking up every little detail’ but to apprehend the story behind whatever disturbance is playing out. And then observe my role in the events.

In other words, the practice is to pay attention to what’s really going on in your life – not just what you think is going on based upon surface judgments.

Drilling for Oil

The Practice of Presence that I am explaining is more like the spreading of a fishing net on a river to catch a fish than a rigorous, focused examination of the events in your life. Many people are ‘aggressive healers’ and turn their ‘healing work’ into a harsh practice and jack-hammer away at their souls in a quest to ‘release their pain’. And then wonder why their is so much distress and grief bubbling up from the inside.

“Boy, why haven’t I healed yet? There must be a big issue me…” < sound of a jack hammer starting up again >

I call this ‘drilling for oil’ – boring down so hard on yourself that black, murky stuff has to come up. But it’s not old pain. It’s new pain associated with your hell bent need to find out what’s wrong with you!

The problem with intensive inner focus is that it narrows your awareness rather than widens it. And does more harm than good. Why? With such a narrow focus ( i.e. you are only looking for problems ) and the intensity which you focus ( i.e. focusing mental energy toward yourself. Energy that moves = emotional energy ) you wind up creating the very thing you are looking for. Sure, you may get some old issues bubbling up, but the material will be accentuated by what you are now doing. I.e. Drilling for oil.

Hitting Pay Dirt

By entering into an examination of the ( content of the ) mind, you become the quiet observer. The quiet participant. The passive pedestrian. And allow your mind to do all the heavy lifting; for it will.

By waiting quietly, you can better see the commotion going on inside you. The noise. The stressing and straining. And this is the trick to the practice, to remain calm, quiet and observant when your mind is attempting to drag you around like wild horses.

Stillness as Your Tool

When you realize that being still ( as opposed to applying an active mindset – i.e. applying a therapy, technique… or even a visualization to ‘deal with’ your internal disturbance ) and being aware is the antidote to the commotion going on within you, you have a profound tool to work with. And as I have found, you only need one tool to do all of your inner work.

Why does stillness work? Shouldn’t I apply a technique or a therapy?

Stillness. And observation is the therapy! It’s about connecting your awareness. The main reason why being present and observant works is because you are forming more and more of a conscious link to a sub-conscious problem. You, in your posture of passive-awareness are anchoring your active-stress-pattern.

This is how you defuse your stress patterns ( and neutralize their effect on your life ). By offsetting them with a neutral posture. Watching, noticing, experiencing, allowing and not-judging your internal noise… all of these things work to counteract your ignorance ( of what ails you ), confusion, reacting and fixations… as well as all the other junk that has it’s roots in an active mind.

Don’t drill for oil. Don’t even have a healing agenda. You’ll only end up harming yourself.

Better to wait for life to present you with the material that you need to connect with – when you need to connect with it. Allow life to do the unfolding and set the time for healing…

‘Relax and unfold’.

As my practice is to ‘notice and not judge’ what I do, I decided to get to the bottom of the anxiety. Now when I say this, I wasn’t looking for a clear answer or a “memory of the time I…” which set up the current axiety. What I was looking for was a simple comfort with what I was about to undertake. After all, anxiety didn’t fit the situation… but it did fit my perception of the situation.

I was nervous.

My usual practice whenever something is stressful or emotional is to ‘sit with it’. By this I mean I sit with my ill feelings and allow them to float up into my awareness. If I don’t have time right then and there, I sit down at a later date and review the ill feelings when I can. Usually before bed.

My point is that I always review my inner stress the day that it happens. And it doesn’t take long to do so and bring closer either.

The Nature of Anxiety

In todays review of my feelings, I learned something interesting. ( As I always do when doing inner work ). As I closed my eyes and felt my anxiety and worry, I ‘saw’ how anxiety works and what it is as an emotion.

In todays session, ( which lasted for all of about 5 or 6 mins ) I noticed that my mind was trying to piece together the situation from multiple lines of thought… “what if this happens?” “What if that happens?” “If I do this then that may happen”.

In my observation of my anxiety, I noticed that my mind was trying to calculate the situation. And plot the best way forward. However, all of this mental math was being done at a below-conscious level using pre-defined values ( beliefs ) and not from conscious computations. What I mean here is that my mind was thinking all by itself…

Worry and Anxiety Exposed

As I delved deeper into my anxiety, choosing to feel it, I noticed that my mind was trying to make up a picture perfect model of what was happening… as well as what might happen. So there was a mix of truths and falsehoods, probabilities and guesses going on.

This is what gives anxiety and worry that characteristic feel whereby you feel your mind racing, you feel overwrought, highly charged, confused and depleted all at the same time.

In other words, there’s too much going on! And because there’s too much going on, you become less clear… and more fearful as a result. And that’s when panic sets in. As well as a new round of mental calculations in the attempt to ‘work out where you are’… and so on the cycle continues.

This is how worry works. So why do you become less clear the more you think?

What is My Worry Based Upon?

As I noticed in todays session, my mind was trying to piece together my perceived situation. And I use the word percieved here because when I looked at my thoughts, there was a mix of reality and futurisms all mixed together. In other words, I wasn’t focussed on what was actually happening right now; which in my case was making a simple decision about website hosting.

As I watched my mind in the grips of worry, I watched as I tried to make up a full working model of the situation… out of what appeared to be mirror-like shards of thought. I was building a mosaic in my mind and because there were so many pieces and things to factor for, I was having a hard time making my mental picture fit with actual reality.

Getting Support for Your Inner Work

It should be said at this point that observing your emotions – especially your strong issues – can be hard. It takes practice! I’ve been ‘practicing being present’ for 20 years now. That’s why I can resolve ( some ) of my issues in 5-10 mins these days. I’ve become somewhat of an expert in how to deal with emotions.

For those who find it hard to observe their emotions without getting lost in them, I suggest several flower essences which will help you to defuse your anxieties while helping you to practice defusing your stress just by simple observation.

First, I suggest Queens Tears, Billbergia nutans flower essence remedy. Queens tears helps to settle your emotions. Another good flower remedies are The Flower of Calm, Vriesea heterandra which works to calm the mind and curb mental excess. These 2 flowers are great together and are part of the emotional trauma combination called Emotion.

For those who wish to be able to peel the layers of the mind and examine its content like I have described, the add Puya Mirabilis to the blend. If you just want some relief from your stress, then use the first 2. If you are intentionally working with a stres pattern that has arisen and you are relatively anchored when facing your emotions, then use all 3. My suggestion is practice with these 3 to build up your ability to withstand the ‘outer shell’ of your emotions so that you can go inside them and discover the active consciousness within them.

Now back to our article.

The Roots of Fear

As I mentioned before, my mind was trying to create a working model of the situation out of various lines-of-thought. Some true, some not. Which lead me to my final understanding. And it’s interesting that I use that word, for I realized what stands-under my anxiety.

The final thing I noticed when delving into my anxiety was that my mind was trying to create a model of my situation… from outside of the situation. I.e. Before it had happened. It was like I was standing just outside of the scene BUT expecting to be clear about it and able to respond easily and without stress.

The words your not in ‘position‘ floated into my mind. And in my work with the terrestrial, ground-growing bromeliads, I knew what this meant.

I was trying to stabilize the situation from outside of the situation. And then, in my plan at least, once all was safe, THEN I would step into it. nice plan, but no cigar!

The Stabilizing Nature of Presence

As I remained calm amidst the commotion, I dropped into the heart of my story and realized that I was nervous about something that I was not clear on… and I was not clear because I was too afraid to step forward and discover for myself what was actually going on. And then once I was  informed, respond and change things as I saw fit.

What I was taught today was not how to handle my business decisions. I was shown how to handle myself when I became anxious. And what anxiety and worry is; i.e. you thinking about a situation that you’re not actually experiencing.

As I remained present, aware and receptive ( non-resistant ) to my anxiety and worry, this produced an antidote to the situation. And the layers of my fear peeled away; doing so because I was present.

Presence is like that. By being present, you are positioned centrally to the situation or whatever you are focusing upon. And when you place yourself inside your situation – whether it be an outer, material circumstance or an internal, mental happening- by being present, you are privy to the realities that lay at the heart of the situation. In other words, your mind can see what is truly there. And therefore, respond in a wise-and-concise way.

By being fully present, you place your minds eye in the centre of whatever you turn your attention to. And in that way, everything in relation to your conscious experience unfolds within your mind.

You Don’t Have to Be Einstein to Find Answers-to-Your-Issues

Einstein used the same method of re-positioning his mind to discover the theory of relativity or E=MC2. By positioning his mind on the end of a light beam, he was able to experience the phenomena of travelling at the speed of light and therefore, produce a mathematical equation of his experience.

In Einsteins case, he positioned his presence to produce a mathematical equation. you can use yours to defuse the stresses in you life, all by using the innate abilities of your own mind…

Afterthoughts

Once one layer of anxiety is dealt with, it often leads to another layer beneath that layer. A sub-layer of another emotion; that of panic or hysteria. If the process is not too much for you continue on. If you feel that you need some support, enlist a qualified practitioner or therapist to guide and stabilize you as you journey inside your own mind.

The key thing to remember here is that you need to be receptive to what your mind shows to you. You cannot force the process for you will end up adding more stress on top of the old. You must be like an air-bubble  that floats up through your inner world, gathering insight as it rises-in-consciousness…

More later.

Do you think of your family and your ancestral roots? Do you think of you nationality and cultural roots? Do you think of your spiritual or religious roots? Do you think of something else?

When you think about it, human beings have a very complex ‘root system’. And should you follow any one of those roots and delve into any one theme, you often gain less insight rather than more. Why?

For example, if you choose to follow your family roots, you are probably quite clear about who your parents were; their character and nature. Going back a little further, you search would fork and your road would take you to your grandparents – both sets of them; your mothers parents and your fathers. If you’re not foggy by this stage, then try for your… well, forget it, you get my point.

Clarity is often not a factor when you go delving into the origins of things. Whether it be your cultural, family, political or religious roots, it’s very hard to ascertain and be aware of the factors that molded you. Sure, you have your own unique character, but this character was also influenced by external factors in your rise to awakening.

In last nights class, we talked about ‘core unraveling’. Core unraveling is where your soul basically unwinds the overlay of stories you have about yourself and sheds them.

We’ve all heard of ‘peeling the layers of the onion’ in the spiritual sense but the difference here is that core unraveling means that the onion is peeled from the inside. A higher intelligence ( and a truer one ) than the ego-perspective conducts the unraveling. And layers of accumulated ‘stories-about-yourself’ fall away in favor of a truer rendition. A version based upon now.

When issues and problems in your life arise, getting to the root of the matter can be quite difficult. If not impossible. Seeing the truth of yourself is perhaps the most impossible feat you can achieve; which is an irony because who else but you intimately knows who you are?

After years of ‘soul searching’, my soul gave up being found. And luckily for me, took up the reins and peeled away the rubbish from my mind. All the junk that told me that I was something else other than my ‘higher self’.

In the new age, there’s a notion of what I call – “the two you’s”. There’s the perfect spiritual being called the ‘higher self’. And another self which by definition can only be called ‘the lower self’. Or, what is more commonly called… “you”.

“The two you’s” is a trick of the mind; one set up by holding… and then becoming mesmerized by… a self image. You are that higher self. You are that central self that you are looking for and longing to be. The truth is we trick ourselves out of our spiritual identity… and the trick is played in this moment. ( See video The Mosaic of Self Image for more clues. )

In last evening discussion, we continued on from the themes presented in the previous weeks class about The Cathedral Flower and her lessons about ‘the inner temple within us all’. One of the aspects we noted in that class was a kind of silence that enveloped our thoughts but also seemed to have a tangible, if not dense quality.

Last evening after I introduced Puya mirabilis and the concept of core unraveling ( being peeled from within ), we examined ‘the silent space again’. And we sat with it. As we did so, I talked about the qualities of Puya Mirabilis from a botanical point of view and it’s almost dire need for water. Different to other Bromeliads, this species of Puya needs to be kept moist or she fades. And any disturbance to the roots will see her go backwards very quickly.

As we focused our awareness on the roots of the plant, I introduced the subject of spiritual roots. “Where are your roots?” Which is another way of saying, what do you base yourself on?

Abruptly I will end this article here and ask you that question; what do you base yourself on?

Answering this question may not tell you the whole truth about who you are… but it does tell  you what your creative life is based on…

This is the second part of “The Temple of Silence” article. For the first part, click here.

When The Cathedral Flower, Aechmea bromelfolia var. rubra ( originally named The flower of Solitude ) became available in the flower essence catalogue, the flower soon rose to “the top 10” of most used essences.

Sometimes the flower was sought out for good and well thought out reasons, while other times  as an act of desperation. ‘A chance to screen out the world’, ‘carve out some space’ and at last ‘get’ some ‘inner peace’. As though inner peace were an object to hold and not an innate state of being.

The idea of finding inner peace for many people is a hard concept to grasp. That someplace within them, there is peace. “Yeah, right!” In the absence of the concept of peace we turn to externals for help. Outer ingredients to pamper ourselves with and starve off the noise that we feel inside. This is why we often feel the need to ‘produce’ peace and ‘do’ things that ‘make’ it happen. And why our efforts ultimately fail us. Because we pin our inner experience on the presence of that outer ingredient(s).

With our backs up against the wall, we are then left with two choices.

.1. The first choice is the fantasy of running away from the cares of the world, living somewhere else usually as the antidote of choice.

.2. The second choice ( which we are forced by circumstance to take ) is that of ‘being bound to the responsibilities’ ( a.k.a. miseries ) of our lives. This is where we resign ourselves to the fate of ‘dealing with the emotional commotion’ that goes along with those responsibilities. It’s the choice where you shrug your shoulders, try to re-ignite you energy and ‘get on with’ the life you are presently living… but seek escape from.

E.g. The noise of family life. The fervor of financial strains, mortgage repayments and making ends meet. The disturbance of violence, hatred and greed in the world. Noise, noise, noise and more noise that you can’t escape from for good.

When The Cathedral Flower was first released, the people I spoke to about it were desperate to find some peace in their lives and escape from family conflicts, from domineering employers and so on. As though escape were their only means of solution.

Spiritual exhaustion – the exhaustion-of-the-spirit – was the main reason behind what seemed like at the time to be a ‘mass exodus from the real world’.

And there lies the lesson! To where we can run?

Withdrawal from life seems to be the only action people associate with finding peace in their lives. Running away, hiding, leaving, quitting, packing up, moving house, taking a trip oversea and the like seemed like the way to finding this thing called ‘peace and happiness’. And although these options were the desire of the people choosing this flower, these options remained an impossibility for many reasons.

Given that human beings innately desire freedom, happiness and creative expression, how can you do so when you are in retreat? Who wants to live a life of withdrawal anyway?

Let’s get real for a moment…

.1. In a world of expanding population, 6 billion people cannot achieve the goal of finding “a nice quiet place in the countryside”.

.2. Additionally, with expanding communication networks and technology connecting us together, finding inner peace by ignoring the suffering of others is also out of the question. Think about it, ignorance ( which is a form of forceful forgetting ) and inner peace are contradictory.

.3. Habitual withdrawal is like living life in retreat. Are you happy to live this way given that your desire is to be ex-pressive, ex-pansive and joyous?

.4. Retreat may provide momentary respite for yourself and from time to time, it is healthy. But, the world is still waiting outside the door for you. The only real option you have is to go on the offensive and seek out the source of our disturbance… and root it out.

The moral of the story…

Not all of the noise of the world comes from outside. Some of the disturbance comes from your disturbing views, beliefs and attitudes that are projected onto the world…

More later.

This morning I woke up with the name of my brand new, soon-to-be released essence firmly in  my mind. The words “The Sacred Heart” became clear in my mind as the perfect moniker for the 5th essence in The Skyflowers “Silver Series”.

As I arose for the day, I felt more-than-clear. Now, some 3 hours later, the clarity has changed. I don’t mean that my perception of the world has dulled, I mean that the clarity I had early this morning has now taken on a luminosity. Wandering around the garden just now has been wonderful; with each color of a rich intensity. *Luminous.

( Note: *Before you go thinking that I am experiencing a drug related high; I assure you that I am not. I have never touched recreational drugs… ever. Even as a teenager I held the ( rigid ) view that I wanted ‘as clean an experience of life as I could’ and I devoted myself early on to ‘clean mindedness’ as the path to follow. )

This morning was a free experience, one born out of itself and not from an outer inputs. The moment – as was I – was born The world was luminous. And my eyes could see deeply… or rather, I was seeing the world with a deeper set of eyes.

“The Sacred Heart essence doesn’t merely help you to “see through to the heart of the matter” as though you were an outsider looking inside for the truth… the essence helps you to realize that you ARE ‘in the centre’, you are the sacred heart that looks out at the world.

The Sacred Heart essence helps you to look at life through the eyes of the soul, to witness everything… and then to act… from this fuller, more deeply informed perspective… The Sacred Heart essence helps you to step out of the long shadows cast by the mind and into the true light of life as it is right now. Helping you to radiate and beam the light that you are. And live your deepest truth…”

This passage is just the first of the notes to come. It was a piece that I wrote down as soon as I got up this morning in my attempt to capture what I was experiencing.

As I got on with my day, preparing some emails and working on some other jobs which needed to be done before I got on with my real assigned work of the day, I noticed something else that was unusual. One of the main tasks for today was prepearing for tonights flower essence class on Puya Mirabilis.

I noticed that I was clear, as I mentioned earlier. And energized; which is a common side-experience to clarity. What was unusual was that I felt the utmost need to do things right away. I felt the need to do things that had long been on my mind… harvest this plant, water those plants, put away some odds and ends in our garden…

My drive wasn’t produced by stress or anxiety either. It was produced by ‘the clear mindedness’ that I was experiencing. It was as though I was sitting back… and there in front of my were my thoughts. Like goldfish in a pond. And those thoughts were about a lot of things. Things that were close to the surface; memorable and current. other were a little deeper down and about things from weeks and months ago. To do’s that hadn’t yet been done and simply remained on my ‘to do’ list.

The strange thing was that I was clear on a whole range of things… at the same time. Not only this, was the immediacy of these thoughts. I had to do them, now.

The biggest example was the article that you are now reading; an article I wanted to post on my blog tomorrow as a follow up to the earlier article I posted this morning.

What I was experiencing was the immediacy of thought. That there is no future. Only now. And that my thoughts – although timstamped with ”later’, ‘happening tommorrow’ and other ‘not nows’ – displayed their true nature. As focused energy affecting this moment. So all of those future ‘to do’s’ and possibilities were not only cramming my mind, they were muddying my present expierience of life.

The immediacy of your inner reality is one of the chief lessons that The Sacred Heart, Ochagavia litoralis teaches. And there is a reason why it’s the 5th essence in The Skyflowers Silver Series; the first 4 prepare you for the experience of life in it’s raw form. Beyond the filters and stories that your mind overlays on it.

The Sacred Heart will be a topic of discussion at the Skyflowers weekly classes and will be released now ( a.k.a. later this week ).

She said she did. it was a new essence made from a piece of amber ( fossilized tree sap ) that was in the shape of a dolphin. She told me the story of it’s origin and the prompts from those around her about the new remedy she was to make.

I cut in and said, “let me guess… does it do this, this and this?” “Yes”. She was excited at my ‘outsiders confirmation’ that mirrored her own keyword-insights.

I cut in again and told her of the new essence that I was working on. “The key word is ‘eclipse’…”, I told her. “…this one is where you step out of the shadows of your past and into the light ( of now )”. As we got talking, bouncing insights back and forth ( with a few marketing tips thrown in for good measure ) she remarked about the similarity of my essence to hers. But as excited as we were, both of us weren’t 100% surprised. We have compared notes before.

The new Shell Essence, “Amber Dolphin” is the 5th new “ancestors code” essence released from Shell Essence Australia… which matches the release of my 5th essence… whose name came to me this morning, “The Sacred Heart”… which matches Ian White’s, new Australian Bush Flower Essences Light Frequency release, “Lake Baikal”.

Hmmm… the plot thickens…

The reason for the move is one of expansion.

The NEW skyflowers-online site will still be a blog site but the main difference is that it will be self hosted and therefore, more flexible in it’s template structure.

Final choices have been made on host providers and the theme of the website is all but chosen; of which will be a ‘minimalistic magazine style’ format. The blog component will still be there with daily postings of articles; this time with a heavier emphasis on the my integrative medicine research work. There will also be the addition of new features such as a slideshow photo gallery of photo’s, greater use of video tutorials, a flower essence database searchable by keyword  and a little later on a shopping cart feature where you can order products online.

The new site is now up but it will take some ‘tinkering under the hood’ to get the whole new design layout in place.

P.s. You will be able to better follow the blog via your favourite social networks such as facebook, myspace, twitter and youtube – that way you can stay in touch with the research project.

P.p.s. Make sure you subscribe to either the emailing list or RSS feed so that you can be altered to new posts and changes to the website as soon as they happen.

The need for me to do so was simple. I wanted to use the internet to raise awareness of the flower essence project and my research into the botanical archetypes… as well as to draw a passive income from paying sponsors. The reason being that I wanted a way of keeping my content free for anyone to read while drawing a passive income that ‘pays-per-click’. In this way, I could then dispense with the last remnants of my day job and focus full time on providing good content and quality essence remedies.

Boy, it’s a big wide internet-world out there. And there are loads of really simple ways you can build an online income; all without selling your $oul.

My new found interest in marketing is only about 4 weeks old. And I am no guru. I’m just a wanderer. A wonderer. But I am by no means a little lost lamb to the wolf of marketing. Not that marketing is wrong, cut throat or dishonest… it’s just that it often is as people seem to go overboard with it.

Slogans, sayings, mass email campaigns. Yes, it all can be too much. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t meaningful, intelligent ways to do business out there.

As I was taking a study break from the computer, I went out and watered my garden. And once again, the garden provided me with inspiration. I realized there is a strange poverty that exists within the field of making money and marketing… it’s like many people ( in the guise of websites ) are starving in some way. Bleating out more marketing but connecting less. Some sites are great and well balanced, leaving you room to move… but then there are sites that leave you no room to think…

Marketing for me, at this level of awareness, is about displaying your best talents, putting them on offer in a concise package that others can appreciate and utilize when they feel the need. In other words, offering a product or service that is life enhancing, and therefore memorable.

Being clear about ‘what you do’ is the challenge! A challenge that I love as it calls me to look at what I am good at, appreciate my talents and then use them… for the benefit of others. Marketing yourself on the internet is the best way to reach as many people as possible. It’s a great medium for world service in that way; helping people lead better lives from across the globe.

As I mentioned early, often there is a needy starvation attached to marketing campaigns. And beneath the veil of a colorful website, you can feel the anxiety and tension about ‘making money’.

As I gardened, my mind drifted and showed me the answer of why there is so much want amidst the promises of internet marketing. For so many people on the path of material security ( which is not wrong ) they place more and more focus on making money – and therefore the energy ( and time ) for other areas , of life are affected. Neglected. And therefore, starve.

Lifestyle starvation. I have been on the edge of this recently as I have been – passionately I must admit – absorbed in the new found mediums and ways to communicate. But, obviously this is not all of life. And as the aim is to produce and sustain a happy, healthy lifestyle ( perhaps helping others to do so by example ), selling yourself off to one area of life is always going to be unhealthy. For the neglected areas of life and self will bring you down… or rather, back to basics.

When asked to describe what ‘solitude’ means, people generally answer that it means ‘to be alone’ or ‘be by myself’. On top of this, they will probably add ‘…to be away from other people‘ indicating that there is also a distance element necessary to the experience. In fact, we believe that ‘the distance element’ is the primary cause which the effect of blissful solitude hinges upon.

Of course, when we distance ourselves from a stressful work environment and take a vacation, the problems which go along with that environment do seem to disappear and ‘not exist’. At least for awhile.

As a result, when we are away on vacation our thoughts are focused upon the good time we are having. And any feelings about our work place fade from our mind. The thoughts and feelings that belong to our work are replaced by what we are currently doing or “experiencing” – in this case, sipping on a little umbrella-clad drink by the side of a pool someplace warm.

It is true that we do gain respite by distancing ourselves from stressful situations. We do gain some sense of rest when we are away from people who get on our nerves or other things which ‘get to us’ like work, traffic, noisy children, etc. But as we know, often distancing ourselves is a temporary solution at best.

For many people, “side-stepping stress” is as far as they go in their efforts toward securing true peace in their lives. But the reality is that our stresses don’t “disappear forever” when we take leave of them. For they simply return when we come into contact with them again. Simple ignorance is not enough.

Part of the problem is that we delude ourselves into thinking that the stressful work environment we left for a week or two has somehow disappeared while we are burning ourselves a nice shade of mocha on a beach somewhere. But, the truth is that the stress associated with that part of our lives has not disappeared – it has merely been overshadowed by our current activity. And the state of mind that goes with it.

Step 1 -  To finding a solution, first acknowledge the problem.

When we see that running away from our problems and stresses is not a long term solution. When we see that our problems will return to us when we ‘come home again’, we then are ripe for asking the question – how do we find true-and-lasting peace in our lives? How do we find refuge in a world which seems to constantly bombard us, confront us, impose itself, eat at our boundaries and demand that we play a part?

Is it even possible to weather that kind of storm?

Step 2 – Honor your desire to withdraw.

The desire to seek solitude now and again is a healthy one. And natural. By being alone from time to time, we can regain balance, composure and find stability once again. Solitude helps us to ‘start over with a quiet mind and calm disposition’ and provides the strength to carry on and face the world again. If you’ll notice too, the briefest exposure is powerful enough to negate any chaos going on inside, simply by ‘taking time out’.

Step 3 – Reflect on the qualities of stillness.

When I seek solitude – or some simple peace in my life – one place I head for is the church in the centre of our city, Melbourne. Despite the hustle, bustle and clamor of cars, trams and traffic lights, this noise does not seem to penetrate the tiny building of bricks and mortar. And it should, because right outside is one of the busiest streets in our city, Elizabeth street.

For many years, I sought my moments of peace and stillness from such places. Usually from churches but occasionally from certain places in nature. I would periodically seek out such places and factor hours into my schedule ‘for spiritual refueling’. At first, I leaned on the fact that these physical environments could offer me the respite I sought. But, to rhythmically withdraw into seclusion had it’s side effects too – there were obvious ramifications on relationships – invoking ‘trust issues’ because ‘I wasn’t ( emotionally ) around’ sometimes. Work and various other areas which required steady commitment, reliability and a stable presence also suffered too. So, for a long time I was caught between two very real needs… to be at peace within myself… and to play my various roles in the ‘noisy and chaotic’ world. An imbalance of either only stressed the other, so a solution became of the highest priority! But what was the solution?

Step 4 – Spend time in your inner sanctuary.

Let’s put solitude under the emotional microscope and take a close look at it. Now, if you examine the motive behind “finding some space to be alone” you will see that it is really the desire to find peace. The motion to withdraw from an environment is really a sign that the environment has gotten on top of us in some way. And that we have lost some kind of vital bearing we feel we need to maintain emotional or mental stability.

After years of ‘periodic-withdrawal’, I realized that my movement toward ‘being alone by myself’ was really just a yearning to reconnect with myself. And that the action of taking refuge was just a way of ‘kick starting’ an inner experience.

Soon I realized that my need for solitude and privacy was not the important thing. This pang was an indicator for something else. A sign that I had become lost in the hysteria of my thoughts and emotional life. And that I needed to move toward quietening and calming myself down. And reconnect with who I was.

After awhile my craving to be alone faded. I also found that as lovely as churches are for quiet meditation, I no longer required them to find inner peace. I realized that ‘the outside world’ was not the source of my inner noise, turmoil and turbulence. It was my thoughts-about-the-outside world that were the marble that rattled inside my can. What I think about my job, my family, myself, my life – all of this contributed to the clamor which I used to blame on ‘life’ or the world around me.

In my practice of solitude; finding myself, I found that there was a stillness and peace that always exists – below the clamor of my internal world, should I stop and recognize it. With that realization as my new basis, things changed for the better.

And after many exposures to ‘treasured silence’ something must have rubbed off. I learned these things…

.1. Solitude, in essence, is not about any kind of extraction, ignorance or avoidance of your environment.

.2. The practice of Solitude is about finding that you have the ability to go within yourself while still being in the world. This is also the pursuit of meditation. To remain calm within an active environment.

.3. The aim of the exercise is not to withdraw from the world in order to find peace for yourself… but to carry the peace you have within you and place it in the world outside.

.4. Spiritual practice, in essence, is ‘pro-active’. Spirituality asks us to be ‘peace ambassadors’ and to cultivate an inner life which ‘spills’ into the lives of others. Peace, thereby becomes a tool in the hands of the enlightened.

More later…

+ Sanctuary. Holy ground. Taking refuge in the sanctity of oneself. Casting out darkness & other defilements.

- Invaded. Inviting discord into your self. Desiring the outside world to go away so you can find your true Self.