Simplify

Thoreau's mandate to "Simplify! Simplify!" has resonated with me since I first read Walden in high school. Even then, I wanted to savor the moments rather than clutter life with endless activities, perhaps because as an only child I was accustomed to having time to walk in the woods and daydream. Now that I am an working parent, I often long for those days when the self-imposed demands on my time were my only consideration and constraint. Lately, I've been thinking about how much I'm doing, even though I still reserve time for simply being, mainly when I'm meditating and practicing yoga.

There are times, though, when I feel too busy, and I see many people filling up every minute of the day and losing time for being. Rushing from a dentist appointment to work to a meeting to work to a volunteer effort to work to exercise to...even sounds exhausting, and I can't imagine trying to experience it without feeling like I was living on autopilot. People whose minds and bodies are constantly active eventually find it difficult to stop moving or even to slow down. These often are people whose non-active times are numbed with television, phones, video games, even novels.

Cultivating time for stillness, however that looks in one's life, is imperative for a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Stillness includes meditation and prayer, but it also includes contemplative walks or time in a church, synagogue, temple, or nature. Even the pause at a traffic light can be transformed into a moment of pure being: Turn off the radio. Let your hands relax on the steering wheel. Let your shoulders drop away from your ears. Breathe. Notice what changes.

Gather these moments where you find them, and carve out larger blocks of time to cultivate stillness. You will likely find your doings are more productive, mindful, and joyful when you have practiced being.