Take a Break

We all know that living in American can be stressful. There is a tendency to rush around ALL the time. No matter what, even if we have a day off, if we have a free hour, with nothing to do. There is a sort of obsession with needing to be busy. We like to brag to our friends about how BUSY we are. My friends do this and I admit; I do this. I’ll be talking to my friends and they will ask me how I’m doing, and my response is automatically, “I’ve been busy”. I say this, even when I’ve had a few days off. Why is it that we always have to be busy? We always have to feel busy? We tend to panic when we have nothing to do. Like it’s the end of the world and we will DIE if we just sit on our butts for the day. Well, why not just do that? Sit. And in sitting, I mean the kind of sitting where you are completely present and aware of what is happening around you. I know it’s scary, and I know it’s difficult. I oftentimes sit on my meditation pillow and things just start coming to my mind. “I need to do the laundry. I have to wash the dishes. I left the light on. I need to nap before work. What’s the point of this?” And so on and so forth. This is something called monkey-mind and we all go through it. But sitting in meditation, monkey-mind or not, we should still take a break from “busyness”. So, here’s a challenge. Take some time out of your busy day to just be.  Peace.