As a serial entrepreneur and confirmed workaholic driven by epistemophilia I have always had a ton of projects in work at any given time and thus my life was in a constant hectic state. I had lived in Cuernavaca intermittently for a number of years until I finally made the full time move to Cuernavaca, Mexico. It was here I finally found my utopia in La Paz, la Serenidad y la Tranquilidad (peace, serenity and tranquility).

After a few years of total bliss in my new home, I discovered the euphoria of being still in a calm place. I had not given the concept much thought of euphoria before moving here as I had been much too busy pursuing my many interests with a great amount of anxiety. It was the anxiety that drove me, as I worried about every little detail of my life and the process of living. Upon moving here, and dealing with my new culture, I discovered that what I had once made ridicule of as the "Manana Theory" of putting things off, was instead a wonderful way of life that in reality better suited my purposes.

A friend recently suggested that I was a hermit, because I spend too much time in my home. She thought it would be better if I spent more time going out into the world. She equated it with getting old. What my friend failed to realize is that I am happy in my home where I am calm and at peace. I have everything I need in my life to be happy. I no longer have to go in search of happiness as I have found it. I am not a recluse. I do go out almost daily to get my fix of friends, intelligent conversation, and enjoy dining in restaurants. Like most, I have to shop for groceries and do my banking. I go out to listen to live music almost once a week. When you are content with who you are as an individual, and are surrounded by calm, the need to seek excitement is greatly unnecessary.

I began to let go of being engaged in anxiety. I exchanged the anxiety for meditation, which allowed me to engage in the moment. I began to realize that when I was working on my various writing projects, spending time in the studio painting, or marketing one of my entrepreneurial projects, that in effect I was not living - only moving through space - and I would often forget to eat or even to breathe. Yes, I would actually stop breathing and it was only when I yawned in the middle of writing a paragraph that I would realize I was starving myself of oxygen. I would push myself away from the computer and move to the sofa. There I would remove my glasses, lie on my back and reflect in a state of meditation for 30 minutes.

In the beginning, this would happen only once a day, but I found that after "taking my med" that I would not only return to my writing with a new vigor, the work went faster as I had effectively cleared my mind and yes, even my soul. At first, I assumed it was just rest, but I have since come to the realization that it is much more. I began to be more happy, more insightful, and my ability to think in a more creative way became easier. Words that once escaped me begin to come to mind more quickly. Now, I meditate twice daily, when I close the computer, unplug the telephone, flip off the front doorbell and spend the most remarkable 30 minutes working on my physical happiness. And, I do arise feeling as though I am truly blessed.

The very idea of being still in a calm place is the most invigorating exercise that one can do both from a physical and mental standpoint. Meditation removes the noise, that is the cause of almost all sickness and sadness, from our lives. Calming the noise brings about untold benefits. I've come to another realization that is perhaps most important of all - happiness is inside of each of us - all we have to do is reach inside to find it. There is nothing greater than being in the moment and finding balance.

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