Calmness is one of the beautiful qualities of the spiritual person. It includes calmness of the heart, nerves, thought, senses, behaviour and body. A quiet person’s heart never becomes troubled for any reason. He does not lose his calm no matter how the problems are caused. As the prophet David says “Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this I will be confident” (Ps. 27:3). It is this type of calmness that comes from faith.
If one loses ones inner peace, everything will look disturbed in ones’ eyes, and what is simple will seem complicated. This complication is not from the outside but from the inside. When the heart is calm the nerves will also be calm. In this case one would not lose temper but, instead, quietly solve the problem.
If the mind fails to solve a problem, the nerves interfere to help. The agitated nerves might announce the lack of a solution, and the more the nerves are troubled, the more they get agitated.
A person with a calm heart and nerves would be able to obtain quietness in thought and action. His thoughts will be balanced, void of any disturbances. Therefore, he will act in a quiet and sound way, far from anger or anxiety.
What helps a person to gain inner peace is outer peace, a peaceful environment that. has no agitating effects. For this reason, monks live in the peace of the wilderness, far from noise, people’s clamour, and any agitating news or incidents. They would have usually got used to this calmness.
The life of loneliness and isolation generally brings calmness, because all the senses are calm. As our saints say, the senses are the access to thoughts. What you see, hear and touch gives you thoughts. If your senses are at rest from gathering news, you will be relieved from thoughts.
A quiet place helps the senses to be calm, and consequently leads to the calmness of the thoughts, heart and nerves. That is why many people avoid noisy places, seeking peace of mind.
Those who love calmness search for it with all their strength, but others, alas, love clamour and could not live without it. Calmness makes them bored!
— Pope Shenouda III