Concentrated Power
“Concentrated power is silence. Diffused power is noise…..When you reach the place of silence in mind, you have reached the place of power, the place where all is one.”
–Baird Spalding (American Explorer, Spiritual Seeker and Writer, 1857-1953)
Strange Fears
“Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life’s nothingness.”
–André Maurois (French Writer, 1885-1967)
Renewing Yourself
“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up.”
–Pearl S. Buck (a.k.a. “John Sedges,” a.k.a. Sai Zhenzhu, American Missionary in China, Author and, in 1938, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1892-1973)
Detachment
“When your intellect in its great longing for God gradually withdraws from the flesh and turns away from all thoughts that have their source in your sense-perception, memory or soul-body temperament, and when it becomes full of reverence and joy, then you may conclude that you are close to the frontiers of prayer.”
–Evagrios the Solitary (a.k.a. Evagrius Ponticus, Pontus-born Christian Mystic, Writer and “Desert Father,” c.346-399)
A Shadow of Reality
“Once you realize that the person is merely a shadow of the reality, but not the reality itself, you cease to fret and worry. You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown….. If you just try to keep quiet, all will come – the work, the strength for work, the right motive. Must you know everything beforehand? Don’t be anxious about your future – be quiet now and all will fall into place.”
–Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Indian Spiritual Teacher and Exponent of Jnana Yoga and Advaita Doctrine, 1897-1981)
An Eloquent Silence
It is hard to over-estimate the importance of learning when and where to be silent. And I say that as a once well-known chatterbox!
“There is an eloquent silence: it serves sometimes to approve, sometimes to condemn; there is a mocking silence; there is a respectful silence.”
–François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (French Writer and Moralist, 1613-1680)
Silent Admiration
“The greatest admiration gives rise not to words, but to silence.”
–Musonnius (a.k.a. Gaius Musonnius Rufus, Roman Stoic Philosopher, 1st Century AD)
Using your Core Values for Rapid Stress Management
“The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.” — Norman Vincent Peale (American Cleric, Writer and Self-Help Expert, 1898-1993)
As a professional speaker, I often forget that glossophobia – fear of public speaking – is the most common phobia in America today. I have a whole toolkit of techniques that I use for helping people with this problem, but I am always interested in new methods that can work quickly.
A study of 80 UCLA undergraduates published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that taking a few minutes to contemplate your personal values (Click here to take an online assessment of your personal values) in the moments before a tense situation, like making a speech, an examination or a visit to the dentist, can keep stress levels low.
People in the study who affirmed their values before delivering a speech had significantly lower levels of one of the stress hormones – cortisol – than did the control group, and psychological measures also indicated that they were less stressed.
“People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.” –Steven R. Covey (American Author and Businessman, 1932-)
Reaffirming your core values is one of the keys to the development of resilience, and that is what was happening in this study. For anyone who is interested in dealing with fear of public speaking or in developing personal resilience, we shall be putting new articles on my website in the next few days.
“Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.” –Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1920, Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, 1893-1952)
Technorati tags: stress, stress management, core values
