Be Open, Be Still - Rooting Out Tension

We hear people say “be open,” and “be still,” … but what do these phrases mean? When I first started on the spiritual path I didn’t quite understand what was meant by these statements, but as I’ve continued working on myself these terms have become more clear in what they mean to me. Here is my take on these two powerful statements:

Be Open

To me, when I hear “be open,” it means not shutting any part of life out. We remain open to the possibilities, even if we might experience pain, sadness, or discomfort. That doesn’t mean we seek those things out, just that we don’t deny these feelings when they are present.

Photo by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash

For example, I know my body carries a lot of tension and unaddressed pain from the past that I’ve typically shut out of my consciousness. It’s there if I look for it or relax enough for it to surface. Usually the sensation is similar to tightness or numbness.

A few examples anyone can test this with are embracing cold and exploring range of motion. We usually shy away from the discomfort of being cold, notice the tension that occurs from it. With movement, we may find limitations in our range of motion because we have knotted muscles/fascia or tension from blocking some kind of damage to our tissues. If we notice and focus on these feelings they will be easier to alleviate with stretching/foam rolling/etc.

Emotionally we sometimes bury our feelings to appease people around us. For example, young men trying to act tough and not show when they are sad or hurt. This isn’t healthy, as we should be expressing how we feel, not suppressing(closing off). Otherwise our emotions will build up over time and cause problems in other areas of life. We need outlets. Try to dig into built up emotions from the past, and start expressing how you feel in the moment.

Mentally we may be clinging to beliefs, thinking that what we believe is the only truth in the matter. This causes us to argue with how things are when we see things that we disagree with. This type of tension can be noticed as fogginess or dullness.

In my experience, mental and emotional tension, or blockages, are more subtle than the physical ones, but each person will vary. It’s easy for me to locate physical tension, and sometimes mental tension, but emotional work is much more difficult for me.

Be Still

This one is simpler to me, but still challenging. To me, this refers to the motion and outpouring of our attention, not our physical bodies. We don’t need to sit still to “Be Still,” we just need to relax our attention. When I first started practicing this my attention was flying around. My attention would go from my itchy knee, to thoughts about what I’d have for dinner, to thoughts about how I’d change my career, to wondering what just made that noise, to thinking about sex, to trying to refocus on being still, and so on and so on.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

Relaxing my attention has taken some time to learn. Our attention loves to grab onto things, whether we are focusing on an object we are looking at, a sound we are hearing, a book we are reading, a daydream, whatever, it’s all the same and it’s not being still. Once I started to get the hang of it, it was like I wasn’t focused on anything, but I was still aware of everything. Truly beautiful and peaceful moments can come from practicing this. It's a great practice if you're looking for clarity.

What are your thoughts?

This is just my take on these two phrases. From practicing these two things I feel like I’m more clear and relaxed in my daily life, and have found it truly interesting to try to discover what exactly is going on with thoughts, emotions, perceptions and sensations. I’d be interested to hear your experiences in the comments below.

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