Everyday moments when we can discover peace of mind
THE OTHER day, I decided to sit outside and have my cup of tea. As I sat there my attention turned to a beautiful rose that my fatherin-law had grown from a cutting many years before. I noticed that already it had greenfly on it, and, irritatingly, I made a mental note of another thing to add to my to do list, muttering in my mind how we have one warm day and the greenfly appear.
However, my mind quickly drifted again and my attention was drawn, this time, to a sleepy ladybird. In that moment I was simply in awe of it, the brightness of its red coat, the darkness of its perfectly formed spots, how it was simply busy, going about its business, seemingly unaware that I, a much larger creature in comparison, was studying its every move. It then struck me how perfectly balanced my rose bush actually was. Here was a ladybird, fresh from its winter sleep on a bush full of its favourite food – greenfly. The timing profoundly struck me and in that moment I was no longer irritated by the presence of this bug, they were no longer on my to do list, nature had it all in hand for me. I felt peaceful.
If you’d asked me 10 years ago where I would find peace of mind, I would probably have laughed in your face. With a stressful job, three small children, and an extension under way, peacefulness was something I felt was only experienced when my family was with their grandparents and I was somewhere far away from everyone and everything. I certainly would not have even tried to find it in everyday life.
When stressed out professionals went to Salt Spring Island in Canada to visit the late philosopher and author Sydney Banks, whose understanding about life I share in my work, they would ask him how to find peace in their lives, and one thing he would do was to send them to watch the ocean. Having been there myself I can understand why, it is breathtaking, you instantly feel incredible and you’d be forgiven if you innocently thought that it was the scenery that caused you to feel this way.
Thankfully we don’t have to travel all the way to Salt Spring Island to find this beautiful feeling, which is especially good to know at the moment, when life may feel crazy and space in your mind a luxury you’ve long since forgotten. That’s because that feeling is within us all of the time, but it gets hidden under the noise of all of our thinking.
Often I’m asked, like those who travelled to visit Syd, how do we experience that? We like to have a ‘how to’ and it would be easy for me to simply say, go and watch a ladybird in your garden, watch a sunset or listen to the birds in your garden. But it’s even simpler than that, because, as humans, we naturally settle, our mind naturally wanders, whether to gaze out of a window or watch our children innocently at play. It may only be for a moment, a nano second even, but in that moment you will experience such a rich, pure, feeling. The art is to notice that feeling, to honour its presence and know that you don’t have to go anywhere, or do anything to experience peace of mind, because you are it already.
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