A peaceful life doesn’t mean that challenges and difficulties don’t arise. It is not about creating a perfect life or engineering things to be exactly as you want them to be. And it's not about waiting for others to change so you can be peaceful.
After all, how much control do you really have over what happens?
The heart of a peaceful life has everything to do with how you receive what you experience. Circumstances arise, and you have emotional reactions to them. You get laid off, and you feel angry. The love of your life shows up, and you are filled with joy.
Peace comes when you say “Yes!” to the reality of all your experiences with openness and and grace.
When you stand squarely in the possibility of peace, anything can arise, and you, as the ground of being, are not disturbed.
Are you ripe for a peaceful life? Here are some things for you to consider—and bring alive in your daily lived experience.
Be aware of expectations.
If what you expect doesn’t happen, you are primed for disappointment and frustration. Expectations are in conflict with life and make you resist what is being offered to you.
And when you don’t expect anything, you are open to receiving life as it unfolds naturally. You are in sync with reality.
Recognize when expectations have taken over your thoughts. Reconnect with your longing for a peaceful life, let the filter of expectations go, and take things in exactly as they are.
When you feel hurt, a young part of you has been activated.
If you evaluate everything according to your needs and desires, you are bound to feel hurt. Rarely, are people actually trying to hurt you. You feel that way because the situation has triggered a young feeling in you about being unnoticed, unheard, or unloved.
Explore this feeling to its root by letting go of the story and experiencing the sensations in your body. Take care of that young part of you that needs your love and care.
Use feeling hurt as an opportunity to explore within rather than blaming someone else, and your relationships will be much more harmonious.
Are you attached to being right?
Arguing your viewpoint brings suffering to your everyday life. If you are attached to being right, you will see others as wrong. You will react to their opinion and try to change their perspective. Needing to be right is all about resistance and separation.
Instead, bring to mind your desire for peace. Does needing to be right serve? What options do you have besides pushing your point?
Be curious instead of right. Listen deeply to understand the other’s point of view, and ask questions. Lovingly, with an open and generous heart, let others have their way. Decide to be close and connected instead of right.
Peace will pour into your life like a waterfall.
Don’t hide from your feelings.
When feelings are too strong or painful to experience, they go underground and wreak all kinds of havoc on your life. This is the source of addictions, complicated relationship dynamics, and general anxiety and dissatisfaction.
The road to peace is to be kind and friendly toward your emotions. Welcome them like a gracious, loving host, and allow them to be present…without acting on them.
Avoiding or indulging your feelings gives rise to endless dramas that are far from peaceful. Instead, simply take your stand as loving awareness and welcome them unconditionally. This is how clarity and connection—to yourself and to life—will appear to you.
Your Peaceful Life
A lovely, peaceful life is available for you. Commit to being aware of your inner landscape to see how suffering appears. Be aware of how your mind turns neutral occurrences into problems. Then turn away from the battle with yourself and the world, and let things be. Just relax…
You will know the heart and soul of a peaceful life.
