Finding Peace
In our quest to find more peace in our lives one thing is for sure. Peace is not just simply going to find us and plop itself down on our being.
Inner peace is something that has to be cultivated, worked on, failed, succeeded, and reworked over and over again. In other words...it is not static. It is in fact, quite dynamic. The experience of peace is a practice, and as such must be nurtured and refined to be experienced.
Peace is more an exercise in changing ourselves than in changing where we live, what we do, or those around us. There are of course exceptions to this. Examples would be violent environments, very toxic people, or activities that promote harm. Peace is an inside job with outside help.
That outside help can come in the form of a meditation practice, yoga classes, spiritual practices, or a close personal connection. The inside component comes from intention, practice, and awareness. If we intend to experience a more peaceful way of being and set a practice into motion, and are then extremely attuned to our inner feelings of peace or lack there of, we can make the necessary adjustments in our lives to make progress.
Many of these "acts of progress" will come from experiencing the absence of tranquility and looking inward to find out why we are experiencing them and our part in it. We will also need to examine the behaviors of ourselves and others that led up to our toxic feelings and give an honest assessment of what can be done to either avoid or correct these behaviors.
One of the easiest ways to progress to a more peaceful way of being is to experience ourselves through meditation. For those who have not tried it, the results can be quite dramatic. To those who have had great experiences while meditating, but haven't had a consistent practice we must try to find out why, and perhaps redouble our efforts to take the time to work on ourselves.
As Robert Persig famously said "The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there".
If you're waiting for something to change in your life or someone to come into your life to achieve peace then you are wasting valuable time. You must be the change.
