[success]Peace is to be found only within, and unless one finds it there he will never find it at all. Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one’s own soul. ~ Ralph W. Trine[/success]
I’ve always been one for full disclosure, so I’m admitting right now, I’m not perfect at walking this path to peace.
That’s really good news, though you might wonder how not being perfect is good news. Well it’s good news for all of us recovering or current perfectionists.
Yay, it’s a celebration, I’m not perfect and I’m speaking it out loud.
A while ago I was visited with the joy of conjunctivitis. It didn’t dampen my spirits, well not too much, but it did give me a really blurry view of life.
Not exactly a rose coloured spectacles view of life, more like a damp and misty morning on the moor.
And that’s just how we see life most of the time; our subconscious beliefs blur our reality.
So we think we’re seeing every event, experience and even people in our world really clearly, but we’re not.
We see our world exactly as we are. Through those, oftentimes less than rose coloured lenses of belief.
We forget that we’re limitless beings, we’ve overwritten the original Divine inner us with programmes of lack and limitation, fear and doubt, anger and irritation and so much negativity that it’s amazing we can find even a tiny amount of peace with the tons of rubbish we carry around.
We’re infinite, all the while considering ourselves the very opposite.
Oh, I’m not saying we don’t have our moments where love shines through, where we experience bliss and joy.
And that’s our true nature, our natural state and yet…and yet, more often than not there we are amidst a sea of troubles, fighting to stay afloat.
What’s to be done to move us onto the path to peace?
It’s time to free ourselves of the negative, let’s begin to liberate our inner being from the shackles that bind.
One little thing that brings huge results, in my experience, is to choose love over fear. Fear is all those negatives, all the hurts, all the pain we feel.
Love is….well everything that feels wonderful. Love is the path to peace.
Something happens that feels terrible, or someone offends or causes pain, or you have physical discomfort.
Try to love it. Mentally say to the feeling, or discomfort “I love you”, say it ten times, twelve times, until you begin to feel lighter, better…you might even want to laugh.
Give the fear, the pain, the frustration permission to leave, with your love, and in your imagination see it flow out of you…I get an image of bubbles gently floating away or a bunch of brightly coloured shooting stars.
Doesn’t really matter. Whatever works for you.
Baby steps work well…just begin.
You might try it one day and work on little things that bother you. You can use it on any event, any incidents that occur. Keep love at the forefront of your mind. The path to peace is through love.
Try it on little negative thoughts, little judgements you’ve made….I’ll put money on it before the day is out…you’ll be on that path to peace.
“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Encourage one another.
Love Elle
xox
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12 Comments
Hi Elle,
Well it’s a good thing that we’re not perfect, isn’t it? The moment we reach perfection then it’s time to move on! I’d rather stay here and work on my stuff 🙂
It’s always great to hear your point of view Julie. Thank you. 🙂
Hi Elle,
Peace does feel that it can be fleeting. We think we have it and then life happens and it floats away. Thanks for the reminder. I’m not perfect walking the pathway to peace either!
It’s nice to be on the path Cathy…I’m finding myself ‘floating’ to use your phrase on the path the more I’m filled with love. 🙂
Perfect is never fun. And causes a lot of stress. Sometimes it is just nice to let ourselves go. Happy is what I always aim for. Thanks for a beautiful post!
Happy is wonderful Vidya…I’ve often thought if there’s more than happy and someone knows what it is, I hope they share it. 🙂
As I read somewhere, “I’m not okay, and your not okay, and that’s okay.” I’ve always loved that. I’m a recovering perfectionist, too, so I get this! Great article. And beautiful photo of the misty meadow.
I like that Galen – we’re all okay. So happy you like the photo.
Hi, Elle. Here’s me again with one of my stories. For a couple of days I’ve been caught in some bad thoughts, remembering the times when I got hurt in the past, and I asked myself, what is it? What’s wrong? I found out I wasn’t really convinced I deserved the happiness the universe is so glad to share with all of us. I read your posts, I tried to tell myself that we all deserve it just by being a part of this amazing world, but for some reason it just wouldn’t sink in these past few days. Then yesterday I read your wolf-post, and I felt better. Today once again you hit the spot with this one. And finally, just now my father came home from an event, and he brought with him a strange package – it was a dozen of blank books(empty, no writing inside), all different colors (it’s a very unusual thing, don’t you think?). Just covers and white paper inside. They were faced down, so I haven’t noticed the titles, I didn’t realize they had titles, I thought they were just blank notepads and it seemed convenient to take a few for myself (he always gives me this stuff, because I am always writing something 🙂 ). I picked three books by color. And then I turned them to see the titles. The titles were “How to read between the lines”, “Enlighten yourself”, and “White light in the snow”. I immediately looked at the other books to see if they all had such lovely, optimistic titles – they didn’t. I picked the ones I needed. This might seem silly, but I wanted to cry, because I felt once again what I couldn’t feel for the past few days – I was encouraged. Since you are my daily source of encouragement, I wanted to share this with you.
I love your stories Ana…they’re always so uplifting and energizing. You encourage us all…and I thank you. 🙂
Taking the liberty to paraphrase from your article “liberate ourselves from the shackles that bind us to negativity”, WOW!
Turn away from embracing negativity and embrace Love . . .
This is very powerful advice and should steel your readers to daringly embrace that change. I know I will endeavor to make it so for myself and my Loved ones. Thank you.
Write on, Elle !
Thank you Joseph…you are definitely a huge encouragement to me…and I *love* you for that. 🙂