We have two Siberian cats. As the name implies, they were domesticated from the wilds of frigid Siberia. To survive sub-zero temperatures, they developed a three-layered coat of dense fur.
The cats are with us always; I mean that literally.
The other day, I donned black dress slacks to attend a funeral. Once in the car, I glanced down at the ignition button and was horrified by the sight of pant legs festooned with cat hair. Luckily, I keep a lint roller in the car.
A lint roller, as you probably know, is a cylindrical tube covered with sticky tape. When rolled on one’s clothes, the sticky tape picks up the cat hair. I rolled my pants, and that was that, problem solved.
Lint rollers are great when new, but ineffective once they fill with debris. This is easily fixed by finding the leading edge of the sticky tape and peeling it back around the circumference of the roller to expose a fresh layer.
Awareness works similarly.
Awareness isn’t the same thing as consciousness. Consciousness is an innate attentive capacity. Awareness is the sticky tape fused to consciousness that collects sensory inputs we filter through memories, judgment, and preferences, to create thoughts.
Awareness is insatiable, continually collecting information that ripens into ever-pressing thoughts.
When a lint roller fills with cat hair, the tape can be peeled back to expose a fresh layer. But what can be done when overwhelmed with stressful thoughts? This is a bigger problem than we realize, because it can go unnoticed.
Here’s an example:
Throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate to fall asleep within 60 seconds of my head hitting the pillow. I used to stay asleep all night—not so anymore. I now wake up like clockwork around 3 AM. I’ve tried all the gimmicks to prevent this: no technology before bedtime, blue light filters, melatonin supplements, abstaining from caffeine and alcohol—nothing works.
This isn’t the worst thing in the world because I’ve learned to use the time productively by reading and making notes for future blog posts. The problem is that by 8:30 PM the next evening, I’m exhausted from a lack of sleep the night before.
Recently, I stumbled upon the culprit and potential cure for this malady.
After waking up at 3 AM and not feeling like reading or working on a post, I decided to practice silent fitness. Normally, when I practice, I’m seated in a semi-lotus position to prevent falling asleep. But in this case, I welcomed sleep. So I initiated the practice lying down.
To my surprise, stillness came quickly. As thoughts left my mind, I entered a deep state of peace. I hadn’t started my meditation timer because I had nowhere to go and nothing else to do at 3 AM. When I finally emerged from the practice, I was shocked to observe that an hour had passed.
When wakefulness came the following night at 3 AM, I said to myself, “I’ve got this,” and dropped into another practice. After a few days, I noticed something miraculous. The peace of my practice continued into the following day. Things that normally set me off didn’t bother me as much.
Clearly, without recognizing it, stress-producing thoughts were cluttering my subconscious mind. Releasing those thoughts during silent fitness practice was like peeling back the sticky tape on a lint roller to expose a fresh layer.
I wonder why that is?
My guess is that constant thinking is like having too many windows open on your phone or laptop. I am sometimes shocked to find that I have twenty or more windows running in the background without realizing it. When I quit those windows and restart my device, it runs better.
Our bodies produce a tremendous reservoir of metabolic energy. Thoughts (frustrations, anxieties, irritations, and plans) consume more energy than we realize. Releasing those thoughts during a silent fitness practice is like closing down background windows on a computer; afterwards, everything runs better.
The benefits of silent fitness are similar and last well after the practice. Now, rather than being frustrated by disturbed sleep, I welcome it as an opportunity to reboot my awareness.
Silent fitness takes time to develop (I’ve been practicing seated meditation for twenty years). But practice is beneficial even for beginners. You can demonstrate that for yourself by pausing throughout the day to take a few slow cleansing breaths, and you’ll see what I mean.
Awareness naturally collects stress. Regularly peeling back the sticky tape brings peace to our lives.
I cover techniques to do this in my soon-to-be-released book, The Secret Within. I’ve been working on this book for twelve years. Honestly, it’s the best thing I’ve written (MJ agrees). The lessons I learned while writing it changed my life. I believe the book offers that potential for others. I recently secured a publishing deal, so in addition to Amazon, the book will be available in bookstores. I’m excited about the potential to help more people by reaching a larger audience.
We hope to release the book by mid-March. In the meantime, if you are interested in peeling back your sticky tape, you might review the Silent Fitness and The Anatomy of Peace sections on my website.
I’ll share more details on the new book soon.
————————————————————
Former blog posts can be found here by subject category and here chronologically.
You can subscribe to my latest posts by filling out your email address at the bottom of this page.
My first book, Towards A Life Well-Lived, can be purchased by clicking this link. Proceeds from sales are donated to Peace In Schools, a Portland, Oregon-based organization that supports mindfulness training in high schools.
Towards A Life Well-Lived 
Congratulations on the publishing deal, Tim! l look forward to the next book.
LikeLike