Self-Help: Getting Your Priorities Right

No doubt you have heard the old saying that no one, on their deathbed, would ever say that they wished that they'd spend more time in the office! Well, given the mass hysteria that is the fear and panic that has been gripping world economies over the last few months, some don't even have the option of spending more time in that office anymore! I don't say that lightly, it's just a fact of the times in which we live - but a fact created by collective state of mind.

For those of us who live in these times, there is an extraordinary onus on us to stay (or become) calm. Only calm, or clarity of mind, will move everyone towards that "even keel" where we no longer get sucked into mass fear or panic. Only a clear mind will move us towards the ability to stop mindless reaction and start acting. If we get there, we can all benefit from the abundance that this life offers us - today.

Calm works wonders. From small wonders - like not shouting at our children, not losing our heads when bad things happen - to major wonders. Consider the US Transcendental Meditation experiment in Washington DC in 1993, where TM aimed to get 4,000 calm people meditating in a central Washington convention centre. Quantum mathematicians at Stanford calculated that the effect of 4,000 calm minds would be seen in a directly connected calculable 25% drop in violent crime - homicide, rape and assault. Whilst law enforcement agencies were more than a little sceptical at the outset, why not look at the US Federal Government's Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy - the results were exactly as predicted.

You see, state of mind is contagious - whether it's just being bored by a boring person, yawning because everyone else has started yawning, getting all excited because your team is winning the big match, or being uplifted in the company of someone who has "presence". It doesn't matter what the circumstances, your state of mind effects my state of mind - and rubs off on everyone else. Decades of psychological research proves this to be the case. And, in recent years, quantum physics has provided with the hard scientific evidence - if evidence were needed - that your energy affects my energy - and our energy affects universal energy.

Which brings me back to the title of this article. Generally speaking, so-called "normal" people have their priorities all wrong, constantly striving for what some might call the "American Dream" of achievement and wealth. Mostly, those two words, achievement and wealth, go together. But what about the wealth of a calm mind, a soul at peace, happy loving relationships and good health? What about having lots of time to do what really turns you on? What about helping those around you rather than helping yourself?

I started this article with one old saying - what about this one: What goes around, comes around. If you take your foot off the accelerator that is speeding us all headlong into a greed-induced disaster and start putting the really important things in life first, decades of anecdotal evidence suggests that you will get everything you need for a perfect life. Again, quantum physics comes to the fore in proving that universal energy responds to our emotions and intentions. But, if our intentions are not honourable, what do you think we'll get in return? Perhaps the current mess?

Why not put the quality of your life at the top of your list of priorities? Why not realise that money can't buy you love? Why not wake up to the fact that without your own peace of mind, nothing else really matters? And, where do you find peace of mind? Where do you find mental calm? The answer is obvious - you find these qualities of life within.

Very few people give themselves the space to journey within - they're too busy trying to win the next deal, or even just trying to make ends meet. The funny thing is that ends meet of their own accord if you give yourself a little space to get re-acquainted with the real you, within. If meditation can permeate a whole city, surely meditation can affect just you on your own. So, no matter how you do it, take a few minutes each day to calm down, to breathe in and out, to marvel at the wonder of the sky above your head, the birds singing. Let your peace of mind be your only priority. Your priority for today - and every day - should be to ensure that you're in a clear and calm state of mind, focused in the present moment. Everything else will follow as night follows day.

Meditate.