Stillness is Confrontational

Jan 31

Written By Carla Monroy

Day 13 of 100: Meditation, Exposure, and the Discipline of Being Still

Exposure

I’ve been considering
what it means to be still.

Not so quick to consume, that donut,
that margarita, that social media.

What if you could just BE—
in your skin. Leaning in—

to the feeling of yourself.

If nothing was weighing your spirit
what would happen?

Would you be forced to be great?
Could you handle being left alone with yourself?

What about when you stay so still
you can hear the angels

whispering their prophecies.

That is being enlightened enough
to be a vehicle.

Take me away,
lead me to what I need to do for me.

You relish in nirvana just for a second,
and break the vibration again.

© 2026 Carla Monroy
Part of the 100-Day Poetry Project

I’ve got to speed it up! Writing twice a month isn’t cutting it. I’ve been busy trying to navigate something I’ve never done before, and I am close, so close. I hope to be able to share the news with you soon, but I digress.

Against Distraction

I go through phases wherein I try to be minimal. Try not to eat junk food, or watch too much TV, or engage in the sentiment that social media serves up every single day. I try to move against what society tells me I should be doing, because it is all too easy to consume, to buy, and to justify.

Today’s poem arrived out of thin air. Now that I’ve committed to this challenge, ideas come flooding out of the gates. The idea of being still is prevalent on my mind as I am currently working on the practice of meditation. Some call it the art of standing still. A quest to find my true purpose in life. The thing that I am supposed to share with the world.

Speaking of Stillness

Have you ever tried to stop the noise around you, including the voice in your head? It is not an easy feat. The mind hates stillness because stillness removes distraction, and distraction is how you dodge yourself. I was reading Eckhart Tolle recently and he mentioned that the mind naturally find problems around it to solve, whether those problems need to be solved or not. He encourages you to observe your own mind and to try to do so without reacting.

In my quest to reach my own version of zen or nirvana, which is to be so clear of outside influences that true direction reveals itself to me, I have realized that stillness is confrontational. The moment you stop moving, scrolling, fixing, producing—you come face to face with the raw machinery of your mind.

You suddenly notice how loud you are, the realization so large it gives you the “ick.” We come face to face with the stories we run on autopilot, and we see how much we react instead of choosing to take it in for a moment.

Meditation isn’t just peace, in a sense it is also exposure. It doesn’t quiet the mind, it shows you how noisy it really is. And once I see that, I can’t unsee it.

Do you practice meditation or have you ever tried it? What are some stories that run on autopilot for you? What did your mind say to you as you were reading this, I’m dying to know.