Harness your Inner Peace
I am driving down a scenic highway on a beautifully sunny day in my little red convertible with my hair flying in the wind. Everything is right with the world. No responsibilities, no pressures, no worries. My favorite song is playing on the radio and I am singing at the top of my lungs. Suddenly I hit a pothole in the road and my car flings out of control. I see a telephone pole scarcely miss my car and no matter which way I steer, the car will not straighten out. Just as I start to roll, I hear a beeping sound that resembles my alarm and I sit straight up in bed in a cold sweat. Great. Not only has every day lately been a catastrophe waiting to happen, but now my dreams are ganging up on me too. Does this sound familiar? Maybe you haven't been through these exact events, but I'd be willing to bet you can relate. In a world that seems to thrive on busyness and chaos, where can someone find their inner peace?
What is Inner Peace?
Sometimes, it seems that we are gliding along just great and then comes a "pothole" in life to throw us completely off course. During these times, it seems almost impossible to keep hold of any peace. The truth is that inner peace is supposed to be what keeps us peaceful even when times like this do come along, not just when things are good. This means that inner peace is something within ourselves that should already be in place whether things are going good or bad. Instead, we end up basing our sense of contentment on the events surrounding our life and then wondering why we never feel peaceful. Ask me how I know. I am not just the spokesperson, I used to be a gold member. One undesirable event in my day would cause me to throw the entire day down the drain.
The Wrong Approach
Let me elaborate on what can happen if we go the "backward" route to attaining inner peace. Say from the time you get up in the morning everything seems to be in your favor. Everything just falls right into place. On the way to work, you hit every green light and arrive earlier than usual. Things are ticking right along and then you get called into the bosses office and get a bad report. From that point on it is a horrible day. Why? Because you can't let it go. A sense of "my day didn"t go the way I expected it to' will follow you around like a dark cloud over your head all day.
Quick Tips to Inner Peace
If you base your inner peace on whether everything goes perfect throughout the day, you are leaving it up to chance. And your chances are not good because things will go wrong - that's a guarantee. If you are guilty of this, don't throw your hands up and think you are doomed. You can reclaim the steering wheel to your inner contentment regardless of outside influences. Here are a few quick tips to put things in perspective:
Remember the common saying “life is ten percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to it”. The first response is not always the right one. I could go on and on about that subject.
Thankfulness is a powerful tool. When you acknowledge and appreciate what you do have, it takes the significance away from what you don't have.
Reach out and help others. It is amazing how therapeutic it is to get your mind off yourself and focus on others. Suddenly you will look back and have no idea where that pesky feeling of discontentment went.
Forgiveness. Is there someone who has hurt you that you haven't forgiven? This is a heavy weight to carry. Holding on to that resentment will leak into everything that you do. Let it go.
Minus all the clichés, Malcolm Forbes said it best - “When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad that they have to get better” After all, inner peace is really an intentional state of mind, not just happenstance. Will you take hold of your power to possess it?
