"Why am I not happy?" "Why is life a struggle?" "Why doesn't work, work?" We probe our soul with questions like these, but we will never hear the answers if we don't take time off in our hectic days to listen. Unless we slow down and take a deep breath, we cannot hear the subtle responses that come from within.

As we get older, the questions about the nature and quality of life come up. By then, though, we are so mired in the car payments and the mortgage and the daily routine, and we are so used to looking for answers outside ourselves, that we fail to recognize the simple truth: We need to find enough quiet space so that we can listen to the answers locked deep inside. We need to stop and let them surface.

Once we take that time, we can reflect on all we have done and all we hope to do, and decide if we are living the life we want or if, instead, it was programmed for us by others. Only then can we listen to our own voice, our own intuition, our own inner wisdom. Only than can we tap into our inherent skills, talents and inner creativity, which form the work for which we were individually designed. Then we will truly reap the rewards of joy and fulfillment as well as a paycheck.

Afterward, when we go back to our busy life, we find that we are whole beings again, not walking machines. If we have chosen to take a break from our careers, the work we choose when we return will be right and satisfying.

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