We lead such busy lives these days, that it is hard to get everything done.

More and more is expected of us from those around us – work, family, friends and society.

It can be very debilitating trying to keep up with it all: we work longer hours, sleep less, eat on the go and don’t spend quality time with our loved ones.

This can turn into a repetitive and increasing cycle of stress and feeling under pressure.

We think that if we only had more time, more hours in the day, everything would be fine.

But it won’t. We can’t make time.

So we try to do everything faster.

However, this doesn’t work either in the long term, as we end up even more burnt out than we were before.

What we should be doing is slowing down.

Moon over the river

Taking time for ourselves, even if it is only for 20 minutes in the morning or afternoon.

We owe it ourselves to sit and be quiet for a while each day.

To practice not doing anything for that time, nor thinking about doing anything.

To not hold on to thoughts of work, shopping, cleaning, entertaining friends or how we are going to pay off the credit cards.

Just breathe, sit quietly and don’t follow any thoughts.

If we do this regularly, over time we find that all those major stresses start becoming smaller and the little stresses disappear altogether.

We no longer view that 20 minutes a day spent sitting quietly as a distraction from our schedule.

We welcome it as an essential tool to enrich and focus our lives.