Thoughts from Still Sitting During this Crisis

We are Here for You

We are here for you at Still Sitting. We are committed to safely continuing to support our customers with meditation supplies. But the truth is you don’t really need new meditation cushions right now. We believe that everyone already has what they need to face our new uncertain reality.

Uncertainty, Anxiety, Fear. We’re all feeling it. We’re not sure how bad this viral infection will get in our area. We don’t know where the economy is headed. We miss being with our loved ones.

The truth is we already have what we need to help us through this crisis. We have our senses, our breath, our attention, our intention. These can lead us to our own sense of well-being and calm. These are always accessible to us, even if it feels like they get buried beneath the surface of everything that’s going on.

Finding a Sense of Calm in Crisis

Finding that sense of calm can be a tremendous help to ourselves and to everyone around us. This can be done through meditation, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, connecting with nature or loved ones, making art, movement, or simply being aware of the present moment. It’s worth the effort to find a few things that work to calm us down. Even the practice of simply remembering to feel our feet being supported by the earth, our hands holding a mug of tea, or our body being supported by a chair (or zafu) can bring us to the present moment.

Finding a sense of calm won’t fix the economy or vanquish the virus, but it will help us see clearly enough to make better decisions as we head into an uncertain future. 

When calm, we are better at holding two contrasting thoughts in our mind at the same time. The chaos and the calm. The worry and the well being. We know we may be in for a hard time, and yet in Buddhism there is a belief that the simple pleasures of life are always available to us, no matter the situation.

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Still Sitting Now

We are a small company – four individuals, five if you count the company dog, Lilly. We’ve done a serious job of social distancing so far. One and only one person is making your orders right now, in a clean and tidy environment.  Everyone else is working remotely from home.

Our island is small and feels far from crowded city life, which somehow makes social distancing and online connectivity less complex.

As a company, we are here for you. We’ve been here making robes and cushions for twenty years, and we’re hoping to be around for twenty more. If you feel you need meditation supplies, we’re happy to provide them. If you’re looking at your personal finances and pulling back, that’s understandable – we are too. 

There’s a quote by Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh we’ve been seeing a lot of lately:

“When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive.”

In this stormy time, let’s all do our best to settle in, breathe, and meet this new reality as best we can. Let’s find our own sense of calm, while also working to keep our local and global communities safe. We are all in this boat together.