Last summer I was allowed on a trip to Poland. In Krakow, young people from all over the world came together for the World Youth Days. We left the Netherlands with 180 young people. Once in Krakow, more than one and a half million people had gathered from far and wide.
In and outside the city you only saw and heard young people. People sang, laughed, danced and waved flags; there was only movement around you. A real festival atmosphere. For days. Nothing stood still, always and everywhere there was noise. Even in the tram or bus to the sleeping location the noise continued and at night it still buzzed in your head when you tried to fall asleep.
In and after this trip it became clear to me again how much we also need silence (in the noise) and stillness (peace in the middle of the hustle and bustle). In between all the hustle and bustle, take a break, give your head and heart a rest and let the dust that has been blown up settle. The busy owner that I am had no problem with all this hustle and bustle, but my head and heart were working overtime… ..
A bit of peace and quiet might not have been an unnecessary luxury. Because when I got back into the work rhythm after an 8-day relaxing cycling holiday, it was busy-busier-busy again. And though I tried to take it easy, within days I was completely absorbed by the vortex that appears to be 'normal life'. I longed for the peace and quiet of the holidays, in which life passed on - nothing had to be done, everything was possible - and in which I could wallow wonderfully.
Fortunately, the meditation course started again in the second working week, a resting point of time and attention during the week: a blessing. I only discovered it a few years ago, just like yoga. We often see both approaches as calm after the storm, and that's how we deal with them. But I know: they are meant to be silence in the storm.
Because of our utility thinking, we Westerners like to fit Eastern techniques into the schedule of the week's hustle and bustle. However, meditation and yoga are not meant to be tuned to the rhythm of the clock, but to the rhythm of life. Integrated in your way of life and dealing with pressure, performance and stress, it really benefits you. You have to spend time and attention on that every day.
Robbert Dijkgraaf, director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, described the importance of tranquility in the NRC earlier this year: “Think of it as something that lies at the bottom of a swimming pool: you can only see it when the water is completely still. That silence is necessary. ”
In De Volkskrant, Wieteke van Zeil linked this to the time in which we now live: “Concentration is under pressure in our time due to acceleration, technology and the total naturalness of being online. We are always on, our time fills up. We live in a time of 'horror vacuum: fear of the emptiness. A term from ancient art to describe a style in which vases and other surfaces were painted full. This is how it feels to many people now: always available, always busy, always connected. Soon there will be 100% coverage on the globe and none white spots more, where you are technically offline. This poses dilemmas, in addition to the dangers to privacy and radiation, but also those for our peace and concentration. ”
Meditation and yoga allow us to cope with the pressures and fuss in our late modern life differently with all electronic devices, who so determine that life. One push message from our smartphone neural speaking consumes just as much energy as lifting a cup of coffee. It is therefore not surprising that we get tired of being online and would like to say 'not for a while' every now and then.
This can be done by planning time for relaxation, meditation and / or yoga. This can be done by occasionally putting yourself off-line and going to a monastery or a weekend of silence. Or to immerse yourself in a Taizé celebration (silence and meditation). We all need it to keep the right balance in our stormy life. And we can learn from it - no matter what happens on a relaxing vacation - that we have silence in organize the storm to stay healthy and happy. It is not without reason that RAPENBURG 100 has these activities in its range.
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