| There are many things in life that are achieved through “doing,” however, wisdom is not one of them. Wisdom comes to us when we stop activity, when we reflect about our experiences, when we observe the experiences of others, when we pray and get in touch with our Creator.
According to some major religions even the Creator rested on the seventh day. How about yourself? Do you take that 7th day to “not do,” to rest, to recover and recharge your batteries? Or do you just try to cram in that day all the chores you didn’t complete during the previous week... or compulsively try to compensate for all the entertainment and joy you deprive yourself of during work days?
Many people report greater productivity after a “time-out”. There is a very real need for a moment of calm at the end of a cycle and before the beginning of a new one. Nature shows this very clearly through the stillness of Winter, which prepares the earth for the bustling activity of the Spring. People who say they do not like the Winter are usually those that go against the natural trend and try to keep up with their forever busy life-styles, instead of taking advantage of the season to slow down, think, evaluate the past year and make plans for the new year.
Getting to know ourselves is one of the greatest challenges we face in life. Just like it takes years after you’ve met them to get to know another human being, knowledge of the self does not come to us automatically. How many times do we pursue things in life we believe are going to make us happy, only to be thoroughly disappointed once we achieve them? How satisfied we are with the decisions we make is a good measure of how well we know ourselves. Before making important decisions, we need a time of motionless to get in touch with ourselves and meditate.
Knowing our strengths and weaknesses allows us to perform better in the other eight areas of life, especially in relationships, since knowing who we are, what we like and what we want out of life will facilitate the choice of a partner.
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