The eye in the middle of the storm. We can not search for peace outside of ourselves, peace comes from you finding that calm and staying there no matter what is happening on the outside of you. We can not just wait for people and situations to change to then say: I now have peace. “If I only had more money” “if this person would only do this”, those are all things we are looking to the outside of ourselves to change things.
“There is peace even in the storm.” ―Vincent van Gogh
I once was talking to a mom who was concerned about her son, his ex wife was making his life very difficult and consequently affecting the whole family. She made a comment and said “If only she was gone, that would fix everything.” What she did not realize, was that even if the ex wife was removed, another stressor will simply take its place. That is called life, that is how the system is set up. If we want peace and less stress, we have to take the responsibility that we are the ones sabotaging our own peace, not others.
“World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human compassion” – Dalai Lama
The peace comes when we fix the inside
Stress comes from inside of us. It comes from our perceptions, thoughts, and ideas about the environment around us. This is how one persons handles stress better than another. Stress is not real, it is something you can shift out of. You have to change how you view the outside world and others, and then you finally learn to:
Respond and not react
This is also called temperance. This is a gift you can receive from spirit, it is a state where your emotions do not control you. You can feel, but you quickly release and do not act based off of those emotions. We all have to learn to deal with toxic people in our lives and around us, people can be mean. I can not emphasize how important this one lesson is. No matter what another person says or does, you can choose to either…respond or react.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
We have to learn to be better, handle life better, handle people better. Peace is the sound of your feet walking away from reacting. Walk away from the things that are not for your highest and best good. Walk away from what no longer serves you. Shifting into a higher vibration and a different way of viewing the world. You do not have to react to every mean, gossip, lies that people say or view about you. Let them have their thoughts, they are not yours.
“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
We have to stop blaming everyone and everything else for our stress and hard life. Look inside and change yourself. Take ownership of why you do not have peace. There are a lot of things to do to help us achieve this state. It is a very personal journey of what each person needs to change, but like all things…it starts with ownership.
“Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Respond with love
Peace is a gift, a special gift that comes from a higher plane. When you practice and come to a state of non reaction you are able to choose how you feel. We can then choose to respond from a place of love and compassion for one another or a situation. You might actually receive a knowing of why another is treating you a certain way. To know their thoughts and feelings… this helps you understand them and not react from a place of judgement, anger, fear, hurt or guilt.
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ―Jimi Hendrix
This is the space I strive to be, a space I want to get to. Not matter what happens, to stand still in the eye of the storm and nothing be able to throw you off your peace. The things that throw us off our peace I call “triggers”. We all have triggers and things that set us off. The more we work to neutralize those triggers and allow the lessons to teach us, we become better people. We become more stable and not allow our emotions to control us. We are able to stay in that eye of the storm longer and longer.
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” ―Albert Schweitzer