It’s the end of a packed workday and I finally give myself 15 minutes to meditate.

Peace and relaxation wash over me immediately, and I let myself sink into it, like I’m slipping into a jacuzzi pool.

The relief of feeling myself come back into inner alignment and balance is palpable.

It’s my usual custom to meditate in the morning. I was up late last night, so I shortened my ‘foundation time’ - meditation and journaling - this morning.

During the middle of the day, I could feel the pressure of so many things that I had committed to myself to get done.

In hindsight, my day would have gone better had I paused at that pressure point during the day and let myself meditate for just 10 minutes. A sort of quick inner tune-up and realignment.

Like so many of us do, I got into a rhythm and just continued to push through it.

To me, there is a difference between flow - where I am firing on all my creative/intuitive cylinders - and this driven rhythm, which feels like a locomotive using its sheer power to forge ahead.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m in the latter ‘mode’, it feels like I’m counting on my willpower to hold out and see me through.

The other thing about it is that I’m exhausted at the end of the day, like I’ve run my inner gas tank dry.

When I’m in flow, it’s self-regenerating and nourishing. I can see the next move clearly and I move into it easily. I’m refreshed and excited at the end of the day, renewed and filled with energy.

This is the way I want to live, in life and work, and most days I’m more conscious of it. Some days, like today, i get into ‘autopilot’ and forget.

It’s OK, because I’m on a journey of becoming more conscious and intentional. And it’s never too late to meditate and come back to me.

Filed under: Adventures of a Reinventer on October 1st, 2007