Behind every request to live a life of peace, involves the practice of being able to let go of all of the distractions you have created in your life that keep you so busy!

True peace doesn’t happen until you are able to be present to the moment you are in, which requires you to end your current cycle of multitasking, and your addictive habit of filling your moments to the max with activities.

If you recognize yourself here, know that you’re not the only one who has created a very busy life… I remember years ago how much I longed to slow down and create a more peaceful existence.

I was convinced that by meditating I could create a core, a center of peace that would sustain me as I moved through the many parts of my life. I worked out several times a week and I meditated every day, but I was a working mom and didn’t know that meditation alone would not be enough to create the peace I desired.

I didn’t know then that I had choice as to how I moved through the many moments of my life. As a result, the only moments of presence I experienced was when I was consulting or speaking with my children. The rest of my life was always filled with so many activities that quiet, presence and peace were only wishes.

It’s clear now that I was more unconsciously invested in “doing” then I was in “being”.
I use the word choice, as it was my decision as to how I chose to handle the many responsibilities I had. I didn’t know then that I could be calm as I moved through my day and as I now look back, I can clearly see how out of alignment my wishes were with the choices I made daily.

Outside of business, home was uber busy as well.
I cooked every night. My boys called me ”the queen of back up” as my pantry in the laundry room had at any given moment, three to four bottles of ketchup, lots of soy sauce, flour, sugar, laundry detergent… you get the picture. 🙂

I considered multitasking my super power as I was always doing at least two or three or even four things at a time. I was prepping menus and a shopping list at the same time I was thinking about the topic for my next lecture. I’d be pulling weeds in the garden, while trying to figure out how I could drop my son at high school, at the same time my younger boy needed to be picked up at the hardware store.

Life was hectic except for the hour that I meditated every day.
I certainly got a lot done, but peaceful? Being in the moment?
Clearly, I was fooling myself.

Does this sound familiar?
Do you seek quiet, yet find yourself filling almost every moment with some sort of task or background noise? Do you move your phone with you from room to room as you move around your home??

Are you and your partner so busy that your intimate conversations revolve around who’s driving children to and fro?

Maybe you’re single and you fill your time so fully with social and business activities that Sunday is a day for your body to simply rest from all the activity of the week?

Our society celebrates busyness and yet we all seek peace.
Are you wishing the world would just slow down a bit so that you could catch your breath, close your eyes and breathe into the quiet…

Well I’m here to help you out!

Please Remember:
You may be busy, but you control the speed and the pace of your life.
You get to decide how you will be, in the midst of your doingness 🙂

You know I’m a believer in small powerful steps.
No need to make a big splash, start small.
Keep on reading and then choose one of the options below and begin to shift your world – welcoming in quiet as your first step toward living in the moment.

/ Leave your phone in another room when you truly don’t need it.

So many people consider their phone an appendage. It’s in their pocket, in their hand, always by their side. They’re constantly reading their texts, or they’re on social media In between moments of activity. I’ve had friends want to talk to me while they’re shopping in stores, driving in their cars, and doing their laundry.

If this is you, make a commitment, to leave your phone in another room if you don’t have business appointments or any reason to truly have it at your side. If you need to have it near, resist the urge to look at it in between calls.

Removing yourself from your phone, is removing yourself from the outside world, it’s letting go of the outside world of distraction, and opens you to creating moments of quiet.

/ Stop Multitasking

I know, I know.
You’re right, you’re going to get a lot less done.
But truly the world can wait.
This may be initially one of the most difficult steps you take but you’re gonna be thanking me for this one.
Start slowly.
Begin by examining where you now multitask and determine how your workload can continue without the need to do more than one task at a time.

The peace you experience from focusing on one effort only will be life changing!

/ Practice Active Listening

This may be your most enjoyable step.

Active listening means you do absolutely nothing else when you’re in conversation with someone. You remain totally present to what is being shared.

Remember how I told you my friends like to call me when they’re in stores and driving in their cars? Most of the time I ask them to please call me when they can give me their full presence, because that’s what I’m bringing to them. I do make exceptions though. I have a friend who lives on the West Coast and he calls me usually at the end of his day when I’m about to go to sleep and he needs to eat, so he’s moving around making dinner for himself as we talk.

I get that there are times you’ll need to make exceptions as well, but commit to active listening as much as possible. It’s truly easy, for all you do is listen and talk, keeping your attention focused on your conversation, and doing nothing else. You will love this, as listening becomes relaxing and you’ll feel more deeply connected at the end of the conversation.

/ Choose to access your social media only once or twice a day

Resist the urge the rest of the day to check your social media, or go on YouTube.
If you find yourself wanting to go on social media in between all of your other tasks, don’t.

Instead, stop. Close your eyes and breathe for five minutes – slowly, deeply and easefully, in and out through your nose, to create some peace for yourself in the moment.

If this advice feels sound and you recognize that you truly do need more peace in your life and you’d like a partner to help you build in more practices so that you can achieve peace more quickly, reach out to me at: selina@selinamaitreya.com. We’ll set up a (no fee) time to talk to see how we can get you on a path toward peace 🙂

If as you are reading these words, you hear the little voice in your head telling you that these steps are too simple, that peace doesn’t come from leaving your phone in another room, or doing one task at a time doesn’t create peace, ignore it.
Try one of these steps anyway!

For each of these efforts creates more space in your life, a spot that doesn’t need to be filled with more doing…. and then you can work on the task of truly learning what it feels like to simply be!