Now You Can Find Peace Of Mind And Meaning

There is my inside me and my outside me. Sometimes they seem to conflict horribly. It’s such a pain. My inside me is striving for a life of meaning and purpose, contentment and existential challenges. My outside me is paying bills, buying a new car and renovating the house. It seems lately that my outside me is controlling my inside me. I’m talking about being on a stress and consumer treadmill.

Sometimes I would love to give this all up and live simply in some country, pondering life, meditating, setting up a small foundation, walking the beach and discovering more wisdom and raison d’être.

What is stopping me? There will be no perfect time. I will just have to walk off the cliff one day and take a leap of faith.

An excellent start would be to start meditating again. Meditating helped me clear my mind, find my breath and increase a wonderful sense of inner peace. I was becoming good at living in the moment and appreciating the little things in life.

It’s a small step that has huge benefits. So the inside me is hopping off the stress and consumer treadmill I’ve found lately.

The other day I went for a mid afternoon stroll with one of the dogs in the small forest nearby. It was absolutely beautiful. The smell of earth and trees assailed my senses and it reminded me of those wonderful carefree summers as a kid. The sunlight splashed against vibrant and luminous green leaves. Small forest creatures darted amongst the plants and trees. I was perfectly in the moment throughout the entire walk. My inside me and outside me were in unspoiled harmony.

It’s too easy to fall out of good habits.

I want more of peace of mind and Mother Nature. Screw the treadmill.

Don’t you?

3 Reasons Why Some People Almost Always Go Insane But I Don’t

Traffic

There are some days when I feel like slapping people in traffic. They rudely cut me off and force me to jam on my brakes like a rookie F1 driver on a rainy day. I then fantasize about rolling down their window and smacking them silly. Or if the traffic is thick I would jump out, crouch and sneak up while springing up at their window shrieking BOO!! and waving pretend claws in the air. Of course the first would get me arrested and the second may cause a heart attack.

Traffic solution – Audio books

I listen to audio books in my car. Lately I’ve been loving “Living a Life of Inner Peace” by Eckhart Tolle. I take pleasure in some spirituality on occasion and this audio book is not only spiritual but hilarious. Eckhart gives an amusing, introspective and at times wistful talk to an audience and shows us a side that really makes him more human (less robot). Believe or not, probably my favourite Audio book for the car. Look at me calling him Eckhart, like I’m his beer drinking bud.That should be MR Eckhart.

Purchasing dress pants

I tried going to discount stores like TJ Maxx to buy cheap dress pants but discovered that I end up looking like MC hammer in his hilarious balloon pants after a while. Hard to find nice inexpensive dress pants. Shirts are much easier.I think so.

Dress pants solution – Find a store you like (and that has nice pants?)

Now I buy all my dress pants from Tristan. They fit well, have a good selection and I try to purchase them on sale. After Christmas is a great time. The only down side is the buttons pop off because they are machined on (and made in Canada!). So I get this tiny Chinese woman to sew them back on. Out of the blue last week she accuses me of not paying 3 cents on the tax and I threatened her boss about taking my business elsewhere. WTF? Anyhoo, we straightened it out and almost had a three way group hug. Who knew buttons or 3 cents could cause WWlll! Find a store you like and stick with it.

Work stress

For many years I found myself in the morning gulping down breakfast, worrying about the latest work issues, hopping in the car and barreling down the highway to make it in on the hour. Yes, a very stressful way to begin the day.

Work stress solution – Have a great morning

Now I gulp down my breakfast and tweet! Ok, not the most relaxing method but one major difference is that before hopping in my piece of metal on rubber tires, I take a few moments to take in the beauty of the morning. This comes from years of meditation and practicing living in the now. The world can be a truly stunning place in the morning. The air is amazingly fresh and at times delightfully dewy. Clouds roll lazily by. Just looking up at the sky can be a Zen experience if you  take your sweet time to soak in the moment. Not hours now, we are talking a few minutes here. After my morning intermission I’m then prepared to barrel down the highway once more. Kidding! But that small break creates a much more relaxing start to the day.

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Also a few related posts

Five Small Ways You Can make Yourself Happy

A Simple Strategy To Start Meditating Right Now

Finding Peace And Harmony With Meditation

Plenty of people ask me how to meditate.

I think a better question would be why I meditate.

Meditation is about letting go of the normal world and associated thoughts that constantly invade the senses and mind. Meditation is about just being instead of doing. Meditation is about becoming friends with yourself and realizing that separation from the ego brings freedom and happiness.

We bombard ourselves with thoughts beginning with I. I need to pay the bills. I need to lose weight. I need to buy a new something. I should be eating better.  Probably 80% of these thoughts are constantly and annoyingly repeating themselves from one day to the next.  It seems to be a constant struggle. Meditation trains you to quiet the mind and look at life from new perspective. By calming the mind, you begin to distance yourself from all that mindless chatter and begin to think with more clarity. Meditation reduces snap decisions and trains you to look at yourself and your thoughts with a friendly curiosity. Instead of being overwhelmed with sudden angry thoughts, you become more inquisitive about your thoughts. Most importantly meditation slows down and relaxes the mind. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we want to exercise the body and the mind?

By practicing meditation, you will find that it affects your whole day. Decisions are made with more clarity. Peacefulness resides in the background of you at all times. You realize that struggling with thoughts all the time was a waste of time.  Life will throw you curve balls all the time. It isn’t easy sometimes. But the more you are able to quiet your thoughts and stop labeling and twisting them, the easier it becomes.

So step out of all those thoughts of desire, dislike, fear, and ego. Don’t let them control you. You can learn to control them.  Soon you will see yourself changing and become friends with yourself and your thoughts. You will chase your thought less often, become less judgmental and see the world with more clarity.

And finally, if you use the meditation technique of following your breath throughout the day, you will be living in the present moment more often. This is the ultimate goal of course, because the more you live in the moment, the more you give your life your fullest attention. Don’t you want to be aware of life and all it has to offer? I certainly hope so.

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Back In The Saddle

Just got back from vacation in Ogunquit, Maine. Had a great time. Lots of beach time, wonderful meals and a couple bottles of wine.

I’ll be back writing some blog posts this week. All the posts here are written by me. I’m really into living in the present moment these days. I’ve focused on awareness of “now” and trying to let go of thinking about the past or present. I find living in the moment probably the best thing I’ve discovered in a long time. I find myself almost in a state of quiet meditation more often which is a much more accepting and peaceful way to live.

I also would like to touch on my own life changes, specifically around getting in shape and becoming financially independent. I might even let you see how I’m doing in my own life changes and post my tracker statistics for you to follow. That would be fun. I think.

I hope you subscribe to my RSS feed, and follow me. The more people I’m accountable to the better.

I think.