It’s snowing. This is day two of watching big, fat flakes drifting down. The roads are not great and the prediction is for a “dump” of a few more inches before the day is through. And, it’s a day when I don’t have any commitments, a circumstance that is both rare and even a little unsettling.

Perhaps you, like me, fill every minute. Work days are, of course, full from start to finish. But weekends, too, are packed as are many evenings during the week. Even when there is nothing on the schedule, I find ways to fill the time. Running errands, chores, baking endless batches of cookies and loaves of sourdough bread—I manage to occupy myself from my usual 4 a.m. awakening until the time I finally go to bed.

But, today, I found myself wanting to carve out a little time to just “be” and not “do.” I watched the snow frost the branches with white and allowed myself the time to appreciate how beautiful it is, how peaceful the scene. It reminded me of how important it is to give ourselves time and space and rest.

When I teach yoga, I often combine it with some meditation. I talk about the fact that meditation helps us to refresh and renew our bodies and our minds, that it can bring us not just peace but healing. I talk about the many forms that meditation can take, from journaling to walking in nature, from quiet moments of breathing and thought to creating a gratitude practice. And, yet, I almost never practice what I preach. If you asked me why I can’t sit still, why I can never settle down, I would respond that it’s just who I am. And that is true. It is who I am and who I have always been.

But that does not mean that I can’t learn to pause. It doesn’t mean that I can’t intentionally give myself time to reflect. It just means that, while it does not come easily to me, I know how much value it can provide and that, in making an effort, I am continuing to grow and learn.

I’m going to hold the image of this gentle snow, of the quiet of the trees iced in white, to help me remember that stillness, too, can fill my full heart.