On Being Still

A few years ago, I received an award at work that came with a trip to Lake George in upstate New York. While there, I wandered from the hotel property into the shops and galleries of the nearby village’s business district.

One of those galleries was full of paintings that had been completed by a woman who, prior to an accident, had never shown an inclination to art. Her paintings, she said, were visions from beyond and depicted what she said were angels. The angels appeared as smears of light or shadow amidst riots of color.

I was fascinated by the story and the art - beautiful regardless of your position on spirituality. The one that most captured my attention was full of yellows, oranges and reds. I found a card of it in the gift shop and the line accompanying the card was “Be still so that you may see clearly.”

I had this experience long before I started exploring neuroscience. Reflecting on it now, after I have listened to many hours of podcasts and read many books on the topic, I am reminded that our brains - in its quest to be the most efficient predicting machine it can be - will often skip over details that are right in front of our faces. The classic example of this is the “Did you see the gorilla?” video.

Because being still is usually set as the opposite of being active, I believe we often think of it as “passive.” But - as the card’s quote suggests - being still so as to observe what all that is happening is a very active state.

As we close November and head into the final month of the year, full of its holidays and celebrations, can you find some moments to be still?

Be well, beautiful people.