During a busy day, there’s power in taking a few minutes to pause.

By Bryan Robinson, Ph.D., Psychotherapist in Private Practice and Author of 40 books.

Achieving balance between doing (your job) and being (your personal life) is a never-ending dance. Especially in a culture where doing is more valued than being, and the adage “An idle mind is the devil’s work- shop” blinks in your brain like a neon sign. And you’re taught to believe that the more you do the greater your worth. If you’re like most people, you will continue to struggle to find that sweet spot — the middle way between doing and being. Life’s curve balls will continue to track you down and challenge you on a daily basis. Some people (including yourself) will expect a lot from you and make unreasonable demands. Life won’t go the way you want whether Mercury is in retrograde or not. And job pressures and family obligations will breathe down your neck. It might even feel like the world is conspiring against you at times. But it isn’t.

Here’s the good news. When you use the tools to chill from inside out, calm and fulfillment will love you back from the outside in. Every time you get caught in the stress of the moment and take five minutes to step back and find opportunity in the difficulty, you get stronger, calmer, and happier. May you find that sweet spot where your busy life coexists with idle movements to chill — moments without imperatives, nothing to rush to, fix, or accomplish. The sweetness of doing nothing for the sheer pleasure of it.

Just five minutes of “sweet nothings” where peace and serenity reside within. And you whisper to yourself the gift of being mindfully present in each moment. Welcome home to the end where you start from and your new beginning. Keep chipping away at the frozen sea inside until a fully formed you is revealed, winking its clear, chill eye.

Excerpt from #Chill: Turn Off Your Job and Turn On Your Life with permission from the author and publisher.

Originally published at ThriveGlobal