'If you know the point of balance,
You can settle the details.
If you can settle the details,
You can stop running around.
If you can stop running around,
Your mind will become calm.
If your mind becomes calm,
You can think in front of a tiger.
If you can think in front of a tiger,
You will surely succeed.'
Mencius 372-289BC
Very few of us will come face to face with a real tiger as we go about our lives but everyone confronts challenges and obstacles of varying sizes and varying degrees of seriousness on a regular basis.
What's the ‘tiger' in front of you right now? Money or relationship difficulties? Coping with loss? A sense of unfulfillment?
Whatever it is, this ancient Chinese wisdom offers a way to deal with it. To succeed, it says, you need a calm mind. To achieve a calm mind you must stop running around. To stop running around you have to settle the details and to settle the details you need to know the point of balance.
To know the point of balance requires that you spend time looking within yourself connecting to the stillness and the silence. In this busy world it's easy to deny that there is stillness and silence in you - but it's there. Just as sure as you breathing in and out there is, deep within you, a place of complete peace beyond time and space where you are free to just be.
How do you get there?
Follow your breath.
Pay attention to it.
Slow it right down.
Be fully aware of each inhalation, each exhalation and the pauses between them.
With practice you will be thinking in front of tigers without a second thought!

Author's Bio: 

Everybody needs a Mammy to love you unconditionally, support you without question, encourage you when you need it, celebrate your victories, make sure you mind your manners and remind you to go out and play!