I love a rainy day. . . the gentle splash of rain on roof and windowpane, the muted grey light, the enveloping warmth of home and hearth that invites reading, napping, dreaming, letting go of the world.

Too often our world has no soothing rain. Too often the mundane intrudes. Too often we forget our spiritual center in the bustle of completing all our tasks. Too often we are pulled into the frenzy, stress, anger of the world around us.

How can we let the world slip away? It's a simple little exercise, but a most effective one. Let's say you are sitting in traffic. All around you are ugly sights and sounds, and worse - angry, frustrated drivers. Are you one of them? Why? There is nothing you can do to alleviate traffic, but there is something you can do to remove yourself from the ugliness.

Stop right where you are. Think to yourself: "Let go of the world; let go of the world; let go of the world," and as you use this phrase like a mantra, take ten slow, deep breaths. Breathe in through your diaphragm (belly) with a closed mouth; breath out through your mouth, slowly and steadily, all the while saying the mantra in your head. Count your breaths by laying a finger on the steering wheel for each breath completed. I guarantee that by the time you have completed ten, the world will have retreated. You will still be stuck in traffic, but you will be refreshed and calm and in touch with your spiritual center.

Use this time to think, not of what's waiting for you to do, not what you're about to be late for, but about what pleases you most. Dream a little house, room by room. Dream a walk through the garden you'd love to own, plant by plant. Dream a stroll through a forest and the plants and animals you will encounter. I think you have the idea now.

Use this technique in the grocery line, waiting at the dentist's office, doing the laundry, cooking a meal, cleaning the bathroom. We can participate in all the demands of the mundane world without letting them intrude upon our inner Self. Let go of the world often, and you will find the mundane a nicer place in which to live.