Don't Hurry, Be Happy

What have I learned in all my years?

The happiness we seek, the quality of life we crave is available to us anytime, anywhere ... if we bring our mind into the present moment and experience it fully.

The question, of course, is how do we do that?

That's what we'll be diving into in this "Don't Hurry, Be Happy" series.

We'll discuss different ways you can center yourself in the midst of stressful surroundings.

You'll learn how to create and maintain peace of mind despite the pressure, multi-tasking, and mad pace of todays' rush-rush workplace.

Blaise Pascal said, "Most of the evils of life arise from man's inability to sit still in a room."

Hurrying and unhappiness are like the chicken and the egg.

Are we unhappy because we're rushing here and there - or are we rushing here and there because we're unhappy?

No matter. The key is to slow down long enough to find our way.

A well-known Zen saying is, "We are like a man standing in a clear stream while dying of thirst."

Philosophers shake their head in our frantic and futile attempts to find happiness in outer circumstances. We are, as the Polynesians says, "standing on a whale fishing for minnows."

Contentment can't be acquired by outer means.

Peace of mind is an inside job.

It is there waiting for us; all we have to do is give it a chance to emerge with the "Don't Hurry, Be Happy" ways I'll cover in the next few days.

Don't Hurry, Be Happy Way 1: Sit and Do Nothing

"If they try to rush me, I always say, "I've only got one other speed - and it's slower." - actor Glenn Ford

For many of us, the only other speed we have is faster.

As a entrepreneur and mother of three told me, "I can't slow down. I have too much to do. If I don't go-go-go, I'll get so far behind I'll never catch up."

If we stop to think about it (so to speak), we realize the only way to catch up to ourselves is to stop rushing.

That's not asking much, is it?

Well, for most of us, it is.

When was the last time you sat down and did nothing?

You may have sat down to have a meal, but then, many of us don't even do that anymore.

We wolf down breakfast while getting ready for work, we munch our lunch while texting and checking email, we eat dinner with one hand on our commute home.

We rarely do one thing anymore, much less no-thing.

So much to do, so little time.

Or at least, that's what we think, which is why we often do two or three things at once and then wonder why we're stressed.

The key to counteracting that belief and behavior is to do the opposite of our norm.

Today, set aside a time to set aside your mind.

Leo Tolstoy said, "If you want to be happy, be."

The goal is to sit quietly with no assignment and no mentally filing through your to-do's.

For three minutes, your head is free to be. It is released from pressure to perform or produce.

It can do whatever it wants without the fear of being chastised. Anything it cares to do - or not do - is perfectly okay. Your mind is liberated to exist however it pleases.

Your soul will cautiously peek out, not believing its good luck.

When it's clear it won't get scolded for doing something it's not supposed to do, it will slowly venture out and stretch like a cat in the sun.

It will expand with its newfound freedom.

It will relax in a way that's not possible the rest of your waking hours when it is tightly controlled and constantly told what to do.

Only for these rare blissful minutes, is it unrestrained.

If you let your soul off its leash, it will relax, roam free, and return refreshed and re-energized, ready to get back to work.

William Penn said, "In the rush and noise of life, as you have intervals, step within yourself and be still."

Don't wait for intervals to occur naturally. In today's non-stop world, that may not happen.

Promise to give yourself a "sit-and-do-nothing" interval each morning so you can start the day zentered.

As Satchel Paige said, "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

Today, take three minutes to just sits.

Get out from underneath the tree of your thinking mind so you can, as Ram Dass so eloquently expressed, see the sunshine.