“Stillness cultivates the mind to receive”

Stillness could be one of the most powerful and beneficial activities we can do in our day. Besides numerous mental and physical benefits, it cultivates a state of mind that can naturally receive what we need to receive, whether strength, reassurance, next actions or a sense of abiding connection. Start your day with some stillness—whether a full 30 minute practice or just 2 minutes with your feet in the grass—and you are setting up the next hour, 6 hours or entire day to be one where you can receive something that you really need from those higher powers and inner powers that support you.

Marshall has long suggested we take note of those statements in the New Message that “stay in the mind.” By staying in the mind over time, these statements end up rising naturally in our own thoughts, even in our own voice, at those specific moments where we truly need them. These are small but powerful truths and the mind readily assimilates them and brings them forth to serve us in situations where we need that truth and to become aware again of the deeper reality that runs parallel to our worldly experience. Here’s a discussion thread I started where you can share what stays in the mind for you.

Steps speaks on the importance of repetition, and the need to communicate its lessons in different ways, with different wording, so that they find their way into our consciousness over time:

Therefore, from time to time We repeat certain lessons that are essential for your well-being and development. We give them different wording from time to time so that you may have a greater and greater experience of them. In this way, they may find their way into your heart so that your heart may find its way into your consciousness.” – Step 185

I recommend you keep a written log of all those passages that stand out for you and that have stayed in the mind over time. This can be part of your studenthood dashboard, a topic we’ll be speaking on more in the future.