In the midst of our busy lives, we often don't just stop and do nothing—relax and just be. When we are caught up in busy-ness, taking a break seems unreasonable. But that's probably when taking a break would be most beneficial. The ego will push and push for us to do more, accomplish more, if we keep giving in to it. The more we do, the more the ego comes up with to do. This busy-ness becomes a lifestyle, and then we can't even imagine what life would be like if we didn't have so much to do.

This kind of lifestyle is pretty much the norm in the United States, so we may not even question it. The trouble with all this doing is that the ego is often running this running around: “Do this. Now you have to do this. Don't forget to do that. When you're done with that….” And this becomes what our life is about. If you wait for the demands that the ego makes on your time and energy to end before you take time out to do nothing, your time-outs will be few and far between.

When you are rushing, doing, going, pushing, you are in the grip of the ego. Are you enjoying yourself? That's the test, really, of whether the ego is running you or not. If you are busy and “in joy,” that's quite different than if you are at the mercy of The Tyrant, the ego that pushes us to do more and more and do it more perfectly and faster than is even humanly possible. Let joy and enjoyment be your guide to whether you keep doing something or stop and take a break.

When you aren't experiencing joy in what you are doing, stop, take a break, and discover what you need in order to regain that sense of joy. Don't waste another moment of this precious life pushing yourself through life. Take a break from the ego's ideas of how to live your life and discover how Essence would move you if you gave it a chance to. It might not move you at all, or it might move you in a different direction. A lack of joy is a sign that you are out of alignment with this that is living you, because Essence feels joy in moving through life. Essence can show you how to move through life more joyfully. Follow its lead, its pushes, instead of the ego's.

How do you discover how Essence would move you? By stopping and doing nothing and listening inside, by being here, now, in this moment without the mind's check-list and ideas about life. Just for a moment, let yourself be here in life, as if it were your last hour, with no future, no past, just this, now. How is it to just be? Let the feeling of just being sink in for as long as you need to in order to shift gears from doing to being.

Being is a very rich place. The ego calls being “doing nothing,” but being is experiencing the moment just as it is. Out of just being arises your “marching orders,” the ones that are meaningful and necessary to you, the ones from Essence. From just being, you will be naturally moved to do whatever you need to do, and you will be naturally moved to rest when that's appropriate. When we push ourselves unnecessarily, we fall out of alignment with our Being, which is capable of running our life much more smoothly than the ego—and with joy. You don't have to give up joy to “have a life.” Joy is meant to be part of life. Taking time to do nothing in the midst of the busy-ness of life is the way back to joy.

Does this sound too simple? That would be the egoic mind's take on this great truth. The Truth is too simple for the mind. The ego turns away from the Truth. Happiness is more available than you may realize. It isn't found in doing and accomplishing, except briefly, because we're never done doing and accomplishing. Happiness is found in fully experiencing life while we are doing or not doing. It's found in being fully present to whatever we are doing or whatever is happening. If you aren't experiencing joy in doing something, then stop, reconnect with your joy, and bring that new-found joy into what you are doing.

From Living in the Now: How to Live as the Spiritual Being That You Are by Gina Lake. Read more excerpts and find out more about Living in the Now.