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Change
Your Day From Chaos to Calm
Syndicated columnist Dale Dauten recently wrote,
“One of life’s great joys that we’ve lost is that of the empty day,
a day given over to quiet, to reading and contemplation. Our
planners and PDAs give the illusion of importance and of being in
control.” A beautiful statement but what Dale doesn’t acknowledge is
that we’ve become such slaves to busyness and mental stimulation
that spending “a day given over to quite” would drive most of us
mad! It would be nothing short of a drug detox.
Any book on brain research will tell you that the brain will
eventually create a tolerance to an increase in stimuli. Looking at
the stimuli in our lives we find work, relationships, TV/media,
music, kids, the list is almost endless. These are all good things
and very important to our daily lives but the high level of stimuli
has become status quo and the thought of quiet contemplation has
been drowned in the mire of pure busyness.
Recently, I called my wife on my cell phone while driving in rush
hour traffic with the radio blaring in the background. What was I
thinking? I recently had high-speed DSL installed in my house
because the three second wait between web pages was killing me!
Here’s another fine example, last weekend I had some free time
around the house and thought I was going to loose it! I had plenty
of things I could do but had no interest in doing them and the
necessities of the day were all taken care of. The nothingness
nearly drove me to scrub the bathroom tiles! Like an addict hitting
bottom, I took the first step of recognizing and admitting that I
had a problem. Then I thought back to my grad school training and
began using some stress management techniques to ease my anxiety and
slow down my mind.
Sitting comfortably I closed my eyes and began taking a few deep
breaths. I progressively relaxed my body starting with my feet and
working my way to the top of my head. This took all of five minutes
and when I opened my eyes I felt a world of difference. This was the
starting point of realizing the sacredness of silence, the
importance of a calm spirit and they joy of a quite mind. Many great
thinkers have had their most profound moments in times of silence
and solitude.
Ever hear of the bathroom break epiphany? Unlike many of the great
minds of years past, we live in an information age that moves at a
different pace but we do have a choice as to the pace that we will
live our lives. By creating time to give over to quiet, to
contemplation and to a calm mind we can not only begin reaping the
numerous benefits touted by all the health and medical journals
about reducing stress, but we will also be creating time to truly be
in control of our lives so that the rest of our time we can give
ourselves to our day rather than be swept away in the current of
busyness.
Here’s a few links for additional information on stress management
techniques:
www.wholeperson.com
www.holistic-online.com
Dr. Robert A. Eubanks is the founder of Bridge to Solutions
Coaching. He coaches people around the country via telephone to
improve organization, time management, goal setting and to create
the best darn life possible! For a free 30 minute coaching session,
e-mail
bridgetosolutions@yahoo.com or visit
www.bridgetosolutions.com
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