Well-being vs. Well-doing

I realize that so far on my very short journey into the world of blogging, two of my posts are focusing on this topic (being vs. doing).  So, it must really be important to me, eh?  It just seems that everyday I become more focused on the fact that most of the time I’d rather be being than doing.  Now this is a brand new revelation for me…I am a classic overdo-er.  Call it what you will, I am a hard-working, house-cleaning, get it done kind of gal.  I embody the “don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can do today” motto.  At least this has been true for me up until just recently.  I am simply one of those people who is active and completes a lot of tasks in a very short amount of time and feels a sense of accomplishment when everything is checked off my to-do list.  I am constructive, productive and resourceful.

So what’s changed?  Why the sudden trip into the right-brained world of peace, calm, joy, creativity, timelessness, less is more?  I’m going to blame it on my meditation practice.  For the past couple of years (has it been that long?), I have been practicing Primordial Sound Meditation.  (Thanks to an amazing and extremely gifted Deepak Chopra-trained instructor named Sarah McLean.  Check out her web site: http://www.sedonameditation.com).  Anyway, since beginning my meditation practice, I’ve had a number of things change in my life.  And one of them is, apparently, that I’m becoming more of a be-er than a do-er.

Now here’s the amazing and paradoxical thing.  I actually get more done being a be-er than I did being a do-er.  It’s not that I sit around eating bon-bon’s everyday.  Actually what has changed is that my actions are infused with consciousness or being-ness.  Since I’m not in such a hyper-manic state at all times now, like I was before, I actually slow down and ponder my next action.  I refer to it as inspired-action.  Instead of racing through my life, I actually show up and experience it moment to moment.  And amazingly, I get more done.  It’s sort of like that expression, “work smarter, not harder”…I find that everything flows more smoothly and effortlessly.  The right people and things show up.  I don’t have to force actions or projects.  Everything seems to unfold more easily…it seems that my overall sense of well-being increases the more I am being and not doing.  Life is much more blissful!

In fact today, my new life coach asked me what one of my top goals was, and I responded that it was “to be in a perpetual state of well-being.”  After reflecting on this response for awhile, I found it to be quite a good goal.  If I’m in a state of well-being (as I define it–feeling good in my body, mind & spirit, connected to my source), then everyone around me will benefit (family, friends, neighbors, clients, the world as a whole).

That’s what meditation does…it takes the focus off the external, turns it around, and places the responsibility exactly back where it belongs–on me.

I’ve read research, and recently Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, A Stroke of Insight, about the right and left hemispheres of the brain and how each has very specific functions…I find it to be extremely valuable information.  It seems the more time we spend in our right brains, in the land of spacious stillness and love, the better off we’d all be.

So here’s to well-being…may we all be well.