Stop the World I Want To Get Off! 
It seems like every time I turn around something else has to be moved from the back burner to the front.  And there are already full pots on those burners!  I know, I know - I like to do too much.  That's the curse of being a Renaissance woman - I like everything - I'm interested in everything.  (OK, not sports, but everything else.)  But even the best laid plans can be turned upsidedown.

Ever-Changing Plans
I have someone coming into town on business with me on Thursday and I had planned on having another business associate coming a week after this one left.  But the second person decided to move up her trip be two weeks and is now arriving on Tuesday (tomorrow)!  Thank God she's staying for the three weeks, so I'm not going to have to try to entertain both at once, but man, things just get piled on top of each other at times. 

Morning Meditation
Now I realize that there is no substitute for calm in the midst of the frenetic storm that is the ever-changing landscape of my business life.  So I spend a little time each morning meditating.  I'm not going over what I have to do for the day, week, month, etc. (that's what stresses me out).  Instead I'm clearing my mind of all thoughts, putting a little white noise in my brain for a while to drown out all of the other thoughts. 

How to Meditate
For the longest time I thought that I didn't know how to meditate.  I didn't realize that all of those times when I just fuzzed my brain out and stared at the walls or floor and just thought about nothing, that I was actually meditating.  I thought there was some great trick to it, but it's deceptively simple.  Keeping a daily practice, being disciplined and being able to turn my brain off consistently even when it was running a million miles a minute - that was the hard part. 

Clearing Your Thoughts
The first step to meditation is to clear your thoughts.  When a thought comes up, thank it for coming and wish it well as it leaves - see it in a bubble floating away into the sky - totally unimportant in the moment right now.  The biggest challenge is not to get frustrated with yourself for thinking.  It's going to happen.  In the beginning (and sometimes even when you're very experienced), you'll spend 99% of the time letting go of your thoughts.  It's the practice that's important - not the results.  Just sitting still for an hour or half an hour each day can do wonders for your sense of equilibrium.

Point of Focus
Some people can't stare at the bad of their eye lids and hope to focus immediately on nothing.  For these people, it helps to have a point of focus.  A candle is good for this.  It is moving and changing, but still amorphous enough that you don't have to think about it.  Its flickering is an automatic relaxer for the nervous system.  So if you need a point of focus, use a candle flame.

Walking Meditation
Some people don't do well at sitting still for meditation, so you can always walk and meditate.  Just become intensely present with your environment.  See the edges around the things you pass.  Look carefully at the benches in the park - really see them.  This too is a type of meditation.  Don't think - stay out of your head.  Instead be aware - be in your body - feel the air against your skin, notice the quality of the light as it bounces off of the buildings or plants around you, smell the air, listen to the noises around you and find the music in them regardless of what they are.  This is the pattern of life.

Being At Choice
Once I have calmed my mind, then I open up my energy to the universe.  I remember that all of life is this wonderful game that I'm playing and, being the intensity junkie that I am, I love being busy.  I remember that I can choose to change the game any time I want.  I remember that I asked these wonderful people into my life and if they all happen to be coming in at once, well it's because they're excited to see me.  I remember that I have built this life I am living and at any time I can change the structure, the texture, the details, and the big picture.  It is all mine to sculpt and mold any way I like.  And, in that moment, I choose my life just the way it is.  Or I don't and I decide to change something.  Either way, I make peace with my life.

Making Peace
Most people go looking for peace in their lives.  They think that it's like the Holy Grail to be pursued but never attained.  The fact is that peace isn't outside of you.  It's a choice you make in each moment.  The things that break our peace are those things that we are in conflict with - those items of our lives that we are feeling out of control of or overwhelmed by, those things that we believe we didn't choose.  But here's the rub.  You chose everything in your life - just like I chose everything in mine.  And if I'm stressed out, well, I chose that too.  And just like I chose to be stressed out when I woke up this morning, I can choose to stop stressing about it too.  Peace is just a decision away.

Choose Peace for Your Life Today - I Know I Will

Kelle Sparta is the author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent - Building Relationships that Create Loyal Clients, Get More Referrals, and Increase Your Sales, as well as  being a speaker and trainer specializing in the real estate industry.  Kelle is the founder of Sparta Success Systems, a real estate training company that provides tools, products, and training to empower agents and brokers to create lives and businesses they can love.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.spartasuccess.com/. © 2007, Kelle Sparta.