The happiest and most productive people are passionate about life. They radiate an infectious enthusiasm that makes “busyness” a pleasure rather than a problem. If you think back to a time when you felt passionate, you can probably still feel the sense of adventure and aliveness. If you were paying attention, you might also remember remarkable synchronicities that helped you along your way. I like to think of them as God's matching grants of grace.

This type of grant is how passionately busy people seem to perform feats bordering on the impossible, while keeping sane and centered. I used to feel that way about being a scientist. Hot on the tail of a discovery, I had the single-mindedness of a bloodhound on a scent. Staying in the lab until midnight wasn't a burden; it was a joy. I was turbo-charged with excitement that heightened my senses, ignited my intuition and made me feel exquisitely grateful for life.

My scientific research was funded by the National Cancer Institute. Whenever a grant renewal was due, it seemed to rain miracles. The mail was often like a treasure trove. Dependably, colleagues would send papers that suddenly made my data fall into place, yielding unexpected insights. A trip to the medical library would turn up a review article with just the right information to support my theories and conclusions. A successful grant proposal would practically write itself
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A laser is a good analogy for the state of highly focused attention that courts success. Lasers are coherent beams of light in which all the particles are aligned, rather than scattered randomly. That alignment gives light the ability to cut through steel. Passion focuses your personal energy like a laser. Your coherent field of energy then brings other forces into alignment with it, just the way that a large grandfather clock, hanging on the wall with a group of other clocks, will entrain the other clocks' rhythms to its own. In a short period, the whole wall of clocks will have an identical “tick-tock” beat.

Without purpose, energy tends to remain scattered. It takes much more effort to manage even the mundane details of life, let alone create a masterpiece. Whether your passion is raising a family, redecorating a room, curing cancer, solving a mathematical theorem, cleaning your closets, building a deck or surrendering yourself totally to any dream, passion brings together a confluence of unexpected opportunities that I think of as grace.
Now here's the paradox. When you're the kind of busy that's scattered and lacking in passion, it's hard to achieve a laser like focus. Your days can become a burdensome exercise in simply getting things done, slogging through a swamp of responsibilities. The resultant fatigue and irritability cloud your vision. A low-level depression sets in that can be hard to overcome. It's a little bit like living underwater. If only you could break through the surface, a more exciting world would be clearly visible. But breaking the surface requires rest and respite. That's why a weekly Sabbath and daily periods of rest, contemplation, meditation, play and reflection are so important. They allow you to get your head above water so that you can find your focus.

Periods of letting go are also critical to the creative process. The history of invention and discovery is filled with stories of people who work with enthusiasm, but can't quite break through to the “Aha!” The answer usually comes when they stop thinking and striving. The French mathematician Poincar had one of the biggest mathematical “Ahas” of his career while stepping off a bus in the countryside on vacation. The chemist Kekulé discovered the circular structure of the benzene ring by dreaming of a snake with its tail in its mouth. And Einstein had his greatest “Aha” (related to his Theory of Relativity) while sailing on a boat one weekend, after spending many fruitless weeks laboring in his study.

There is an insidious idea in our culture that we alone are the “doer”. This philosophy assumes that all ideas and actions spring from our isolated self. It tells us to set goals and work hard to achieve them. But these ideas are only partial truths. Every person is born with unique gifts to offer to the family of humanity. You know you're using them when excitement and passion fill you with joy and purpose. That's when unseen forces of evolution and coherence conspire to help you, opening up avenues that you might never have discovered alone.

Think about what ignites your passion. Reflect on those times that you've burned the brightest, busy and excited, yet peaceful and harmonious. Are you living your passion now? Are you taking the pauses that favor creativity?
You don't have to start by looking for your Purpose with a capital P. Try immersing yourself in a small passion. Perhaps there's a room you want to paint, a sweater to knit or a garden to plant that excites you. Give yourself to the process. Like attracts like and as your passion for the small things builds, life will fill you up more abundantly.

*Excerpted from Inner Peace For Busy People, 52 Simple Strategies for Transforming Your Life.

Joan Borysenko, PhD has a doctorate in medical sciences from Harvard Medical School. Currently the president of Mind/Body Health Sciences, Inc., she is an internationally known speaker and consultant in women's health and spirituality, integrative medicine, and the mind/body connection. She is the author of 10 books, including her latest “Inner Peace for Busy Women”.