In our society, we’re swimming in violence. We’ve see it on the NEWS. Perhaps we’ve seen it between our friends or even our family. Perhaps we’ve experienced it ourselves.
Some of us have perpetuated what we’ve seen and experienced against our loved ones, some of us against nature and our animal friends. And some of us have done a fine job of perpetuating the violence we’ve seen around us against ourselves, without awareness, of course.
We need to start asking ourselves, “Why violence?”. Why accept the physical, psychological and relational consequences of walking this path, with all the stress, pain, betrayals, and losses that come along with it.
If the opposite of violence is peace, and to heal means to do a thing differently, then for those of us who value the inner world and healing, we need to begin to ask ourselves, “Why not peace?”
Think about it. Why not live our lives in the experience of peace, where we feel at home in our bodies and contented with ourselves.
Where conflict is not what’s championed, and by extension perpetuated, but where there’s harmony in our relationships, with both humans and animals alike.
Where the vibrations of our peace can nourish our personal worlds and extend outward to our communities, society at large, and beyond.
So what if you’re at a place now where you know you want to live your life in the experience of peace, but don’t know how to approach it?
Here are a few thoughts to consider:
- Start listening. To yourself, to your thoughts, your feelings, your body. And just as importantly, stop discounting what you hear. Listen.
- Be present to your feelings. Resist the temptation to push away what you’re feeling. Feel it. And feel it with compassion. It will lose its charge and dissolve away as a result.
- Be compassionate. One of the root words of compassion is patience. So consider having a little more patience for yourself.
- Be mindful of your food choices. Does another living being need to suffer or die for you to be nourished? We eat their fear too.
- Adopt a contemplative practice. And do so from your tradition of choice where you will learn to relax, rejuvenate, slow down, let go, reflect and be present to yourself.
- Heal the pain that is alive in your body. Find a way to let it go. It’ll lighten your emotional and energetic load. You’ll feel the relief.
Having said all that, here’s the kicker: What we’re not told often enough, if at all, is at the end of the day there’s actually no destination to get to, no place with a sign on the door saying ‘Peace Lives Here: Welcome!” , because the peace that we seek is actually living inside us right now. We’ve just forgotten.
The task is to remember we’ve forgotten, and to find ways to remember. It is my hope the few thoughts offered above will help you to remember, and will support you in this life changing journey.