The rain was falling on my face. I ran through puddles in my swimming costume leaving my shoes somewhere I never cared to know. The sound of my sisters laugh still echoes in my ear. I was nine.
Every early mornings began with birdsong. Spring meant the scent of flowers in our garden. We rode our bicycles down a long, hilly road lined with trees, wind rushing past us, and by the time I was ten we were trekking three kilometres on hikes my parents planned for us.
We were simply there. People around us were simply there too. The noise of what others were doing or not doing didn’t have any space in our heads.
Years later, I caught myself scrolling through my phone while my children laughed in the next room and I realised, I sometimes miss the sound entirely. I loose time, didn’t know where is it going. Maybe, we have lost the habit of being truly present for our selves and our people and maybe also for the things we do.
Peace is not a place we travel to or a reward we earn once life calms down. It is already scattered through our days, in sunlight, in laughter, in a warm cup of tea, and we walk past it because our attention is elsewhere, truly not felt or seen.
Many of us quietly believe: “I’ll slow down once I take a break. I’ll find calm when life gets less busy.”
The belief assumes peace needs big changes, long holidays, or a perfect season of life. I have found the opposite. Peace is built from small, repeated conscious choices about where we place our attention. Calm does not come after a busy life. It can live inside it, weaving it gently.
Here are three lenses for bringing it back.
The Art of Noticing
My eyes moved left to right, reading a small piece of writing, unaware that this will give me a novel lens of seeing everything around me.
After that, I began noticing the sun on my skin, my children’s laughter more clearly, a candle flickering, trees swaying, waves hitting the shore. These moments added calm to my days even when I was busy working. I started treating meals the same way, slowing down to notice smell, taste, and warmth, and tuning into hunger and fullness cues.
I clearly learned that Joy does not come to you. It requires you to give it attention with intention.
The more attentive I became with intentional life, the more meaningful my life became. The more meaningful my life became, the more excellence came seeping through the cracks. With excellence, you have the capacity to create beautiful things. And maybe, joy was hiding somewhere in there.
Noticing is not a modern wellness trend. It is an act of reflection and gratitude that has always been part of the believer’s life. The Quran repeatedly invites us to reflect on the world around us:
"Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding." (3: 190)
Weaving Joy Into Everyday Life
I opened my laptop to work on the long essay that needed more work. I had been working on it for so long that I needed to finish the task now. The time stretched to the time I had imagined I needed working on it. And it felt long and tiring.
Something had to change. So, I got up and changed into my best clothes. Made a hot cup of tea for myself and lit the only candle sitting on my desk. The next few hours passed with no track of time. I finished my task in one sitting.
I learned that day and then taught my children, to pair difficult tasks with things we love. If cleaning the kitchen feels tedious, make a hot cup of tea or coffee and sip with it. If a question feels difficult to solve, maybe solve it and reward yourself 5 minutes of play with your favourite toy. And then solve it again so it becomes your finger tips. We all can pair difficult tasks with the what we like. Until we move from the difficult phase and enter the state of flow.
We can shape our routines, protect our time, and make room for flow by understanding ourselves and being more intentional about it.
So, lets ask ourselves, which task could you pair with something you love? How can an activity makes you forget the clock then?
Daniel Golemen writes in his book, Emotional Intelligence, describing Flow as;
“You and yourself is in an ecstatic state to such a point that you feel as though you almost don’t exist. I’ve experienced this time and again. My hand seems devoid of myself, and I have nothing to do with what is happening. I just sit there watching in a state of awe and wonderment. and it flows out by itself.”
Creating Peace Within and Around You
In my first attempt in pursuit of silence, my mind raced to directions that seemed to have no end. May be, my mind is a wild horse that has never been tamed. It does not know how to stay still for even a moment. As, I kept on working on my attempts to pursue silence in my life, the wild horse started to sit down for a bit. And then later for longer periods.
The more I tamed my horse of thoughts, the peaceful pauses started to take shape inside me. That allowed me to decide what deserves space inside of me. I started carefully deciding what needs to stay inside me and what do I have let go. So in my pursuit of silence, I did not just created peace within me, I also created peace around me.
Your Inner peace decides how you exhibit the outer calm you have. A peaceful mind creates peaceful surroundings around you and vice-versa. Both of them feeds on each other.
What is one thing you have been carrying in your mind that you could set down tonight? Or may be you want to tame your horse first?
Allah SWT consistently reminds us in the Quran, that in the remembrance of Allah, do hearts find rest (13:28).
A Quite Moment
Choose one moment and give it your full attention. It could be your first sip of tea, the light in your room at sunset, or the sound of someone you love laughing. Stay with it for one full minute.
I used to think the puddles, the birdsong, and the long bicycle rides were gifts of a certain childhood, something I had lost and could only keep in my memory.
I think, I see it differently now. Those moments were never gone. They were waiting, in the rain on a window, in the swaying of a tree or in a quiet morning, for me to really see.
Bringing peace and joy into our days is not about drastic change. It is about noticing, appreciating, and cultivating small, meaningful moments. May you find calm in the present and beauty in the everyday.
What small moment has brought you peace or joy lately? I would love to hear it.
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