The Busy Mind and Deep Peace

Sometimes, ever so often, we might take time from our busy lives to sit down a moment and think. At those times, our busy mind may put forth an entirely mundane question such as, "Now what did I need at the drug store?" or it may present us with something deep and reflective, "Am I a happy person?"

These two questions are examples of the depth and breadth of our busy mind. We all know, though, that our busy mind cannot answer those questions. It only wants us to "stay busy."

Psychologists and mystics know more about the busy mind than I do. All I know is that while my mind helps me understand reality, it also offers a never-ending perspective of "What could have been" and "What could be." It rarely lives with me in the present moment.

Psychologists and mystics would agree, that is if they were in the same room, that our busy mind may indeed keep us sane and cognitively aware of that which keeps us alive, but our busy mind also keeps us from deep peace.

Deep peace is a psychological and a spiritual dimension that is possible through meditation, contemplation, or prayer. A lot of people, a lot, do these things and find that their lives are better for doing them. The Buddhists call this sitting.

But there are also many of us, many, who can't find time, for whatever reasons, to sit. Perhaps it is not a priority, or our personalities are not suited, or we just don't relate to sitting.

There is hope though, for us to find that deep peace.

We can find ourselves deep peace when we are involved in something as routine as vacuuming, ironing, or washing the dishes. We don't have to sit and "empty our minds," or "fill our minds" to get to a place of deep peace. Somewhere in the repetitive actions of mundane tasks it is there.

We may not even be aware of getting to that place, or how we did it, but we find ourselves there quite easily. So easily, that our busy minds don't even know it, and thankfully, don't interfere very much, if at all.

And when we finish our task, we find our lives are better.

All of this has scientific merit. Several researchers have shown that the effects seen in the brain are the same, whether a person is sitting or performing mundane tasks that bring about a sort of meditative state.

We don't have to dedicate hours to sitting, unless we want to or need to. We can get lost in the routine of our mundane lives and find deep peace--if we but allow ourselves to go there.

Our busy mind doesn't like us to be in the present with our deep peace, but heck, there are lots of things we don't like about our busy mind. Turnabout is fair play!