Our memories of the past and anxiety about the future tend to dominate our lives from moment to moment. The logical side of our brains work nonstop to reconcile the whirl of thoughts and feelings that soar through. It's exhausting.

Taking yourself to the least-excited state of stillness you can find allows you to rest from all that. Even five minutes will open up the other side of your brain ever so slightly so that you may experience a burst of creativity, openness or compassion.

If you can train yourself to access this quiet on a more regular basis, the cacophony of the world becomes more manageable. You can be in the moment rather than living last week's catastrophe over again. And you can feel a sense of ease and lightness, perhaps even joy, in the face of fear and anxiety over what's to come.