Inner Restlessness

"If you let restlessness move you, you lose touch with Who You Are." -- Tao te Ching

Have you ever noticed how much of what you do is spurred on by an inner restlessness? The need to do something, be something, share something, or simply to veg out for a while? This is the universal seeking and striving that becomes so exhausting. It's like climbing out on a very fragile limb, far from center, where you're constantly trying to get your balance.

This time of year it is very easy to be restless. There are endless parties and family gatherings to prepare for that make us restless and glad, or there are stories of lost loved ones and friends that make us restless and sad. Qualitatively there is little difference, since there is no peace, and everything has become outer referral.

How do we find peace in the midst of this? First, the restlessness is in us, and has nothing to do with externals. Once we stop trying to equate how we feel with externals, we stop living in the restlessness of constant reaction. Once we allow the world to be as it is, and do what we do from an inner peace, we find the restlessness is gone. We are the storm and the calm. We are.

"Thus the Master travels all day without leaving home. However splendid the views, she stays serenely in herself." -- Tao te Ching