Mental peace amidst chaos 

It has been more than three weeks since we’ve moved into the new apartment. The unpacking process is slow and tortured. A lot of things are still in boxes and difficult to find. One of the things that has been out in the open though, is my latest unfinished piece that I referred to in an earlier post.

Due to its fragile and delicate nature, we had to bring it as one of the last items we carried ourselves – not entrusting it to the movers. Since then, it has been lying out in the open and solemnly staring at me in the evenings, calling my name. Between my work, setting up our new place and getting our daughters set up for school and daycare, I have barely had an evening to myself. On top of that, despite my best intentions, there hasn’t been much progress with setting up my desk. It has fallen prey to all of the miscellaneous items we find in boxes that don’t quite have a defined location allotted in our new home yet.

I have written earlier about the multiple barriers that life can present. Some issues may be more trivial than others, but last night was one of those I usually dread the most. Despite being a mother for almost 7 years, I still get a shiver down my spine whenever I hear that my husband needs to work late or has to go out for dinner with his colleagues. My pulse quickens as I begin to imagine a chaotic evening unraveling. On top of my husband’s dinner out, my younger daughter was coming home from a weekend at grandparents’ place. That meant that I would have two kids on my hands along with all of the less than joyful activities involved in getting ready for a school week. I had no hope of time to myself.

The evening turned to go relatively smoothly, aside from that fact that my older daughter went to bed an hour later than expected. I came back to my bedroom exhausted and tense. I thought of curling up with a book and going to sleep soon… And then it hit me. I actually did have an evening to myself, albeit on the late side. So I unpacked all of my instruments and supplies and got to work; right on the bed for the lack of a better option.

And then something magical happened. I got in the state of “flow” as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I lost track of time. I lost track of my thoughts. I entered a zen like state. I restored inner peace. All by just threading beads on a wire and assembling the tiny, newly formed spines on a dendritic branch.

While I greatly enjoy the process of creating, I am also looking forward to finishing this neuron and posting it on NeuroBead!