The Healing Power of Stillness

Have you ever felt that sinking feeling of anxiety when things aren't going as planned? That's exactly what happened to me at Latina Fest, standing at my author table watching people walk by without glancing at my books. My stomach tightened as those insidious thoughts crept in: "Maybe I won't sell anything today. This was a waste of time."

But then something magical happened – a microsecond of perfect stillness descended, slowing my perception of everything around me. Suddenly, I noticed the joy permeating the festival – the music, the laughter, the community celebrating together. A voice inside whispered, "Wait, this is perfect just the way it is." The revelation transformed my experience: the accomplishment wasn't in selling books but in being present, in feeling the joy of community. When I released my attachment to outcome and embraced the moment, I started smiling and dancing by my table. People began to notice, wave, and approach me to learn more about my work.

This episode explores a counterintuitive truth: sometimes stillness isn't a pause in your healing – it IS the healing. After completing my emotionally demanding "Why Behind the Bruja" miniseries, I found myself in a quiet emptiness that felt uncomfortable for someone who thrives on productivity. Yet that discomfort held an invaluable lesson: I had been moving too fast, meticulously crafting my message while forgetting to leave room for myself in the process. What if the real power isn't in perpetual motion but in the courage to stand still?

Where in your life might stillness offer you clarity that constant motion cannot? Where are you rushing when you could be noticing? Before you push harder, consider whether softening might be the braver choice. Share this episode with someone who needs permission to be still, and message me about what resonated with you. Remember, stillness isn't weakness – it's sacred.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Have a Cup of Johnny
• 1:19 Stillness: The Hidden Form of Healing
• 3:40 Finding Stillness After Emotional Exhaustion
• 6:40 The Latina Fest Experience
• 11:33 Shifting from Anxiety to Joy
• 17:26 Reflection and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh we could, we could fly. Welcome back to have a Cup of Johnny. This season isn't about hustling harder. It's about coming home to yourself, to your voice, to your breath, to the quiet truth that you're still here and you're not starting over, you're starting again. This is your space to reflect, reset and remember who, to tell you why. So pour your cafecito and let's begin. Hello everyone, and welcome back to have a Cup of Johnny.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Podcast. The podcast where we talk about the messy, magical and sometimes soul-rattling lessons life teaches us, whether we're ready for them or not. This month's theme because we're in June right now, vasitos is the quiet power of returning to yourself, is the quiet power of returning to yourself. But today I want to flip that just a little, because sometimes hear me out here the real power isn't in returning, it's in standing still. So hear what I want to offer to you in this first episode. What if stillness isn't a pause in your healing? What if it is the healing? And I'm not talking about peaceful spa day, although I love that, but that's not what I'm talking about here. It's more of a kind of stillness. Let me explain it. Hopefully I'm going to do it justice. I'm talking about the kind of stillness that shows up like a full body exhale after your soul says, hey, that's enough.

Speaker 1: 2:16

And that was me after I finished the why Behind the Bruja miniseries last month. It was raw, I gave everything. It was like cracking myself wide open and explaining why I wrote that book in the way that I did the various rewrites in that book. It was very personal. It took everything I had emotionally and when I ended that series in May it didn't feel productive, it didn't feel accomplished. Instead, it just it felt super quiet, not defeated, but like I put out so much, I poured out so much that I was just like and just still.

Speaker 1: 2:59

And that stillness had some things to say. But when you're someone like me that thrives on productivity and that is something that I'm still working on how to go away from that a little? That stillness told me that I had been moving fast, too fast, trying to get the story just right, the message tight, the motion clear, and that's good. Right, it's good. Being detailed, it's good. But it also told me I hadn't left room for me in the middle of it.

Speaker 1: 3:41

You know, and that's what stillness does it whispers the things that we like. Bulldoze past it for the sake of getting it done, for the sake of productivity. It holds the lesson that can't be learned while we're rushing, while we're doing right. So for me, the stillness taught me like you're not broken, You're just tired, you don't need to push harder, you need to soften a little, and y'all know how hard it is to soften when the world wants you sharp and moving and productive. That's very hard to do, but I want to tell you what happened, because I allowed that bit of stillness to come through. And I don't want to sound woo-woo, right, but it's kind of magical and I wish this for everyone.

Speaker 1: 4:48

And you'll know when you hit that kind of like stillness, even if it is a microsecond, and the best thing that I can describe it is my first time actually getting meditation quote unquote right when I finally went to a peaceful state, but it was only like for a microsecond, if that. But it was so profound, the moment was so profound. That is something that I will always remember, even though it was short lived, you know. So I hope that makes sense. So that's how you know that you found that inner peace, that stillness, that moment, because your mind captures it, even if it was just for a microsecond, like it happened to me at the Latina Fest, and I believe that moment happened because I stopped assigning value to my productivity and chose instead to be present in the moment. And before I forget about this and just start talking about the moment, let me just take a pause right here and let y'all know that the Power of Now is a great book that describes this. I've read that book. I'm going to need to reread that book, but that is one of those books that kind of like altered the way that I think about things. But that book does a great job of explaining what stillness is and how you can learn and teach yourself little by little to be more in the present. All right, okay, but let's go back to I'm still a little horse from the Latina Fest, but let's go back to Sunday.

Speaker 1: 6:40

It was the Latina Fest at Grand Park downtown LA, and I went through a little hurdle of getting my table ready because it was a bit of like, should you be in this table or not, with another author there. So I went to the people running it and I got clarification from them and then I had them come with me so that way they can validate that you know that was the table I was supposed to use, me and another author, another children's author as well. So, of course, you know, my heart is racing. I'm already like biting into my time like 10 minutes just doing that because I need to, you know, get my table set up and things of that nature. And, mind you, I will say like a whole 10 minutes prior and everything, I did the right thing and all of that, but I still needed to do that one extra step because of the of the conflict and table. So I kind of like woosah out of that one right.

Speaker 1: 7:42

And I was there just standing next to my table with my books and I noticed that a lot of people was just walking by, but it wasn't because the table was at a bad placement. On the contrary, the table was in a great placement because it was through traffic going through there, right. So everybody that came through the Latina Fest would have had to walk through the author's table and it was two tables right there and I was like, okay, this is a great placement, right. But then I started to notice that people were just beelining and instead of looking towards their left, they were more looking towards the stage, towards the right or looking at the other vendors and things of that nature.

Speaker 1: 8:30

And this thought just crept through my head and it's very insidious the way that these thoughts that could potentially make you spiral go through your head. They're quick thoughts that could potentially make you spiral go through your head. They're quick, they are quick, they're like that enemy, that little devil on your shoulder right, and this thought just came through and it was like maybe I won't sell anything today. And it's like this feeling that occurs as soon as that thought comes in in my stomach. It's like my stomach drops right. And if you read any of my books, you will see that I put this feeling on my characters quite a lot when something bad happens or when they're getting anxiety. And that's because I feel it. I feel anxiety very much in my stomach. It just it's right there, my stomach clenches, it feels like it drops. It's like this sinking feeling that starts there and it just goes up to my throat where I feel like I'm suffocating. I can't breathe if I allow it to like, grow in me, you know.

Speaker 1: 9:38

And I, as soon as I thought that maybe I won't sell a damn book today, and my eyes darted towards my family that were there looking at me, being so proud of me. And then I felt that feeling of judgment, that feeling of being challenged, that feeling of failing and for a split second my stomach tightened and I felt this sinking feeling and I felt the spiral of anxiety start to drag inside of me and that came with the thought of this was a waste of time, I'm going to fail miserably. Why did I even make such an effort to come over here? But then something else happened. It was this microsecond, just a microsecond. I wasn't there for that long because there was a lot of people there. But this microsecond of stillness showed up and I remember everything just went very slow, you know, like my environment just slowed down for that bit of time that I was there, and just like that insidious voice of I'm not going to sell a damn book. Why did I even come? Showed up. Then another one showed up as well. Hold up. It said, wait a minute. And it was like this hand on my shoulder, right of this being that showed up and slowed everything down. So I can see it and I want to cry just thinking about this moment, because that's how powerful these moments are and I can't wait for y'all to feel it, but it was like everything slowed down.

Speaker 1: 11:28

I noticed how joyful people were, I noticed the community, I noticed the smiles, I noticed the music, the singing around me. I noticed people talking to one another, loving on one another, and I was like, wait, no, this is perfect, just the way it is. I am here and I am so grateful to be here. You know, and it just clicked on me, you know, that I am in a perfect spot right now to feel joy. And when that dawned on me, I allowed myself to feel the joy that was happening around me. You know, because that was it.

Speaker 1: 12:24

The accomplishment was being there, and I allowed the other voice, for a bit, to harass me into thinking that the joy was in being there and sharing in this joy that was so readily around me With Latinos, with everyone else that was there, just celebrating Latino culture, you know. And within that stillness, I made that choice. You know that the accomplishment was in being there. The sun was out, music was playing, my community was all around me. So I started smiling, I started dancing in place next to my table, just letting the music hit me, just right, and people looked and people waved and I waved back and one person scanned my QR code and I asked her to make sure that she looks at the landing page and she showed it to me on her phone and she was like, oh, I'm doing it just now. And in that moment it was like this is it, this is community. This is why I'm here to share in my joy with others, you know, to allow others to share in their joy with me.

Speaker 1: 14:22

And that stillness helped me to realign my goal right then and there, that it didn't need it to be in selling books, but to be present and okay, even if no one bought a single thing. And listen, I am grateful beyond words that I don't depend on book sales to pay my bills. I know that other authors do so, I am very cognizant of that, but maybe, just maybe I'm not saying that this is the end, all to be all, but hear me out maybe for those that depend on vendor sales to pay their bills, maybe stillness is a way, right, that can give the ability to drop the outcome and become part of that moment. That can give the ability to drop the outcome and become part of that moment, and when you become part of that moment, it can help that person trying to sell, to be kind of like a magnet to others to come to them or to feel good about coming to them so they can hear more about their products Coming to them so they can hear more about their products. You know, because I was thinking about that and I was very grateful that I don't depend on the book sales, that I can do that so readily in finding peace, even in moments of anxiety, right, and of counterproductive thoughts and things of that nature, right.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Because here's what happened after I let go of that, like I said, I smiled. More People waved, looked at me as opposed to just looking straight at the stage. A few, too, came to ask about the books, you know, and they didn't buy it. But I got to talk about Isla Delgado and her story. It gave me back my joy while I not because you're pushing something, but because you're present, you know you're there and it's something about a person that is present, that is soaking in their environment, that it just makes other people boom looks towards them, you know, boom looks towards them, you know, and it may help you attract customers, you know, you never know, give it a try, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 17:26

So, before I leave you, here's your reflection that I want you to do for this week, and it's this where in your life can stillness help you shift your mindset without needing to change your circumstances? Let that sit with you. And if you're in a season where you feel like things aren't moving fast enough or success isn't showing up loud enough, what if the lesson is simply to pause and be in that moment? That might be the moment everything starts to change. Think about it. If this episode gave you something clarity, calmness or just a reminder to stop gripping so tight, share it with a friend, message me. I want to hear what you're learning too. And until next time, basitos, stillness isn't weakness, it's sacred. Talk to you soon, bye. If today's episode spoke to you, share with somebody who's finding their way back too, and if you haven't yet, visit haveacupofjoanniecom for more stories, blog posts and the bits that started it all. Thank you for being here. Until next time, be soft, bold and always have a cup of John.