The Calm You Seek Is Already Within You
December often sweeps us into a flurry of activity, emotions, and endless to-do lists, leaving little time to pause and breathe. Amid the season's noise and activity, it’s easy to feel that peace and clarity are out of reach. Yet the truth is both simple and profound: the calm you seek isn’t something you need to find—it’s already within you, waiting to be unlocked.
While many people in the UK (91%) have faced moments of significant stress in the past year (Mental Health UK 2024), this time of year offers a unique opportunity to embrace practices that nurture peace and balance. Inner calm isn’t just a momentary relief—it’s a powerful tool that can illuminate your path and transform how you experience life, helping you meet each day with clarity, strength, and joy.
Dru yoga and meditation teachers guide you to reconnect with this source of stillness and strength through simple, accessible practices designed for even the busiest days. These practices can significantly reduce stress, improve focus, and enhance overall mental well-being. This festive season, give yourself the gift of inner mastery—a calm that can radiate into everything you do, enriching your life and those around you.
This page offers a few pointers on how to find inner peace and send it out to others.
What you’ll Discover
- The story of Dhruva - the archetypal story of inner calm that symbolises the essence of Dru Yoga
- A downloadable Dru advent calendar
- A short meditation practice that you can do anywhere (coming during the month)
- Thought-provoking questions for your classes, clients, or friends
- A downloadable poster with quote (coming during the month)
The Story of Dhruva: Finding Stability Within
Long ago, in the ancient tales of yoga, there was a boy named Dhruva who sought peace in the world around him. Born into a royal family, he felt rejected and restless, believing his happiness lay in gaining approval and recognition from others. Consumed by this longing, Dhruva approached a sage for guidance.
The wise sage told him, “What you seek cannot be found outside of yourself. If you wish for true peace and stability, turn inward. Pray to Vishnu, the Divine Father within you.”
Taking these words to heart, Dhruva retreated to a forest. Standing resolute in Tree Pose, he steadied his body, calmed his breath, and focused his mind. Day after day, he held this posture, his unwavering concentration becoming a bridge to his inner stillness. As his mind mastered the chaos of longing, he found a profound peace rising within—a sense of connection to something vast and eternal.
Moved by Dhruva’s dedication, Vishnu appeared before him. But rather than offering external treasures, Vishnu gifted him a place of eternal stability: Dhruva Nakshatra, a fixed star in the sky that never moves, known today as the North Star. This celestial gift symbolised the inner stability Dhruva had discovered—peace that no external force could shake.
Linking Dhruva’s Journey to Yours
Dhruva’s story reminds us that the calm and clarity we seek are not found in the shifting world around us but in mastering the mind and connecting with our inner light. Just like Dhruva, we can create a foundation of unshakable peace through simple, focused practices. Whether it’s through a moment of stillness, mindful movement, or breath awareness, these tools allow us to find our centre amidst life’s chaos. And with this mastery, the gifts of focus, joy, and resilience naturally follow—just as they did for Dhruva.
Reflective Questions for Your Classes, Clients, and Friends
- What does mastering your mind mean to you and how can you start practising today? Perhaps you could journal about what this means to you and what action you could take this month.
- How can you create space for moments of stillness amidst the noise of the festive season?
- In what areas of your life could you shift from seeking peace outside to cultivating it from within?
- Think of a time when you found unexpected stability in a moment of chaos - what did that teach you about your inner strength?
- How does your body respond when you mind feels at peace?
The Pebble Visualisation
This powerful meditation is designed to help you reconnect with your core yearnings and prioritise what truly matters to you. It’s a simple yet transformative way to bring focus and inner peace into your day.
Wishing all the team at Dru a very happy and safe festive season
Lynn Oxwell, Western Australia
Sorry – ‘conscious’ visualisation takes me far from what feels like meditation. It just feels as if it keeps me in that part of my brain that I try to escape. This is why I have found alternatives to the Dru approach to meditation, after a number of serious but frustrating attempts at pursuing it. I know it works for others. I just have the wrong sort of brain for it.
Hi Sheila, Sorry to hear that! It’s certainly true that we use a wide variety of guided techniques to help create focus and a warm-hearted ‘interest’ that engages manas – our experiencing mind. Eventually the purpose of such techniques is to allow that focused interest to so calm the ripples upon the lake of manas that it quietens down… and settles so much that we can start to see a reflection of the Inner Self. That kind of connectedness is inexpressibly beautiful. 🙂
However, this approach doesn’t work for everyone. Some need to simply become a witness and gradually detach from all thoughts, emotions, sensations. Others find that simple non-thinking does it, or non-being. And others are happier with a mantra, or their breathing, or the brahmari breath etc.
In the end, the destination is all that’s important; the route is simply that which works best for us. The goal, in general, is a place of silence, stillness, connectedness that is intrinsically fulfilling. The simple presence of real being.
Do feel free to reach out to me (Andrew) if you’d like to explore some other ways of meditation that might help, or if you’d like to see us offer other ways that do help you.
All our very best wishes to you!