Increasing ability through developing character traits - Tranquility

When I decided to work on the virtue of tranquility I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I enjoyed it so much I extended it by about a week. It was an amazing experience and look forward to the next rotation to work on it even further.

How does one work on the virtue of tranquility? It was something that I really did not know where to kind of start. Just before I started this week I heard somebody say, “If you really want to get to know yourself, go for a whole week driving your car in silence.” This would mean no radio, no phone calls, pretty much nothing. The first morning I did this I thought I was going to go crazy. It is amazing how much your mind bounces and wanders when you are left alone with nothing but your thoughts.

I have so much going on in life that it was nice by the end to be spending some time just being quiet. With work, family, school, and all the little projects I am trying to work on life gets really hectic. I really believe that what Franklin meant by the virtue of tranquility is to just be quiet and listen. As someone I know is fond of saying, Shut your pie hole!

Another thing that I did was to make sure that I spent a couple minutes in the morning and evening meditating and praying. I don’t think I am the only that when I pray I kind of say a prayer but don’t pause to listen for an answer. I believe that there is a lot of power in pausing and listening for an answer. Meditation also helped to clear out my head.

With the time I spent just being quiet I had time to recognize more about how my mind works and how I process thoughts. It was a nice additional benefit I did not expect. It has helped me to slow down and focus my thoughts a bit more when I process things. This has helped me to increase patience and truly think before I speak.

I was just thinking that it is funny that after having worked on tranquility I don’t have a whole lot to say about it.

Next week is persistence.