You feel restless and can never be still
You cannot sit still. There is a constant need to be doing something, moving, filling every quiet moment — and the rare times you try to just be, a jittery discomfort drives you back into motion. You are always busy and never at rest, and you do not know how to stop.
This restlessness is worth understanding, because it is often not what it seems. The constant need to move is frequently avoidance in motion — a way of staying ahead of a feeling that would surface the moment you were still, so the busyness is the escape and stillness feels unbearable because it would let the buried thing catch up. Three things follow. See the restlessness as a signal, not a mystery. Approach stillness in small, bearable doses, building the capacity a few minutes at a time. And when the avoided feeling rises, let it be met rather than fled, since feelings met lose their charge while feelings avoided keep you running. On the other side of the quiet you fear is a rest the restlessness could never give. What do you think waits for you in the stillness?
What changes unlock by starting
- You see the restlessness as avoidance
- You approach stillness in small doses
- You let the avoided feeling surface
- You find the rest on the other side of it