My desk faces the window, and several trees that are filled with wildlife. Squirrels play in the branches, birds alight, twitter and fly away. The branches sway in the wind, or shake in blinding rainstorms, or turn beautiful colors and fall. The sky is brilliant blue, dotted with cottony clouds, or thunderous and grey, lit by lightning, or simply soft and misty.

How can I possibly get work done with all that going on right in front of me?

I’ve always had trouble meditating – I simply can’t sit still for any length of time. But recently I tried Japa meditation, made popular by Dr. Wayne Dyer in his CD “Meditations for Manifesting”. In Japa meditation, you take a deep breath, and slowly breath out while you make the sound “Aaaah”. This is the sound of the creator, as is evidenced by the many names given the creator: God, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Ra, Dao. All these names have the “Ah” sound in common. I’ve found that calmly repeating this sound allows me to focus my tumultuous mind for up to 20 minutes!

Try this: bring yourself into the present moment, tune out all that’s going on around you, and feel peace now. Just feel totally calm and at peace. Now, intensify that feeling. Let it flow all through your body like honey. Notice how it makes you feel. Especially tune into the feelings in your hands: are they tingling?