Being quiet inside. Today, many say this is not very important. This seems like another way of saying it's too difficult, so give up on it.
I still worked on being quiet inside. When I could maintain silence for brief periods, the result was always good. Relaxation, relief from stress, clarity and impartiality always resulted from inner silence for me. But it also had a feeling like I was trying the impossible. Until recently.
I read lots of things about emotional baggage from many different sources. While the concept seemed valid, I could not find a reliable and practical way to get rid of this 'invisible baggage'. Until recently.
I tried an experiment. I had read about revisiting your memories, a practice that was done with a sweeping breath. Recollecting as many memories and the accompanying feelings and reclaiming or releasing them (as the case may be) with a sweeping breath seemed practical to me. I could 'put my hands on it' in a figurative sense.
I would love to enter into speculation about how or why it works, but at the end of the day, it seems that this would remain just that: speculation. Putting aside the speculation, let's just say I have been pleasantly surprised at how effective this practice is for me.
In the short term, it was a pain in the neck. You need to find a quiet place where you can be undisturbed for some time. I started with 5 minutes because that was all I could muster in terms of both time and attention. After a typical practice session, I found myself tired, often with a vague nausea. This lasted for 30 minutes to an hour. After that, I felt more relaxed, at ease and often I had higher levels of energy, lasting through the day.
More recently, I find 15 minutes easy, and often extend my practice to 30 per session. I almost always get the higher level of energy beginning a few hours after a session, and I have a deeper sense of quiet confidence in all that I do. I find myself thinking remarkably less about unpleasant people or situations in my life. And recently, I have tried the 'old traditional' meditation technique of trying to focus my attention on some particular aspect that I choose (breathing, counting, or even the feeling of silence). The difference is remarkable. It is now very easy to enter into a state of quiet concentration, and sustain it for 10 minutes without any particular effort.
This is without a doubt one of the most profoundly effective techniques I have worked with although the results are slow coming and it appears that they are cumulative. I've been doing this practice for about a year and a half now. There's simply no looking back!