It's holiday season - you're bustling between three Christmas dinners, hauling your gifts home, and planning for that New Years party right around the corner. It's a hectic time, to say the least. Everybody is running around like chickens who've lost their heads. Traffic in the streets is a nightmare, and the kitchen congestion around the turkey is only worse.

Even with all the chaos about you, peace and tranquility can be found by washing your bowl.

Yup, that's all there is to it; washing your bowl.

The time it takes to scrub the leftover crumbs from the surface, rinse, and dry your dish pales in comparison to the amount of time spent gazing at the wall wondering what could be a better use of your time. A couple of minutes gives you the opportunity to complete the act of eating by returning the dish you used to its former glory. Washing your bowl after a meal is akin to closing a well-read book after you finish the final page.

This practice offers peace of mind by handling the loose ends of cleaning the dish later which usually means mindlessly rinsing and placing it in the dishwasher.

This idea is an ancient zen practice that focuses on the mundane, ordinary tasks that are central to reaching your extraordinary dreams. Mindfulness at the most minute level transforms itself into a strength at more complex levels.

For further reading about this idea, check out this article by The Daily Enlightenment.