How to find peace in a busy world

How to survive in a world designed for full schedules, and multi-channel, always on communication? Well, it is hard. And it takes time. The answer is you can’t just learn to remain calm and avoid anxiety overnight. But it can be done, and this is how I work my way there:

Minimize noise

Define ‘noise’ as everything that doesn’t give you satisfaction. William Morris says to get rid of everything that is not beautiful or useful. It’s hard, yes, but be ruthless nonetheless. It’s a skill I still need to master, but I’m getting there. I don’t shop much for clothes (I hate to admit it, but I wear a uniform most days), I don’t use facebook, I don’t read the news, I am getting rid of everything I own that I can live without: clothes, mementos, knicknacks, etc.

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” —William Morris

Turn off notifications

Turn them all off. Specially your email and calendar, but most everything else as well. For every notification that you get, answer this question: Does this notification give you pleasure or does it add to your stress? If the answer is “stress” you know what to do. Realize that you can’t live your live being always on call, not for work, not for gossip, not for urgent news, etc.

“Mobile notifications put people in a state of perpetual emergency interruption - similar to what 911 operators and air traffic controllers experienced back in the ’70s and ’80s.” —Douglas Rushkoff

Accept perfection is unachievable

I’m sure it’s not very scientific, but there is a rule of thumb that say that you get 80% of your results from 20% of your energy (loose interpretation all mine). It then follows that it takes that 80% left of energy to finish the rest 20% of work. The way I see it, is: invest 20% of your energy, get 80% of the ideal results and jump on to the next thing (or simply disconnect and relax). You will never get to 100% results. Accept it and be happy.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” —Dale Carnegie

Nd that’s it. No more, no less. Take on meditation if you’d like. I think it’s a great idea. The points above are my practical takeaways from my meditation practice. I’ll talk about the spiritual take-aways another time.

Accept that you and everyone you love will die one day. Truly accept it. Then you will be able to take control of your anxiety.