How to find Inner Peace ? Do you find yourself compartmentalizing your life?
Do you have one category for your relationship with your partner and a separate category for your career?
Do you see your relationship with your children as a distinct entity apart from your issues with your weight or drinking?
At face value, it may seem like your life has many different compartments and while parts of your life may be going very well and bringing you great fulfillment, at the same time, there may be at least one area that’s causing you heartache or struggle.
For example, you may be very successful at work, have great friends, or have a grandchild who absolutely adores you, but find yourself deeply concerned about your marriage.
Or perhaps your challenge with your weight has you throwing your hands up in despair.
Maybe your job has become demanding and unfulfilling.
Does it sometimes seem like no matter how well things are going there’s always something that creates some angst?
Does your thinking tell you that if only things were better in this area of your life you could finally be happy?
When you look back over your life, as much as there are periods of your life that you may glorify, wasn’t there always something that stood in the way of complete, total, sheer happiness?
Even if it wasn’t your own struggle, but your preoccupation with someone else’s difficulty, has your mind ever really been at peace?
If you are like most people, the honest answer is “no.”
finding the deeper sense of inner peace.
Seeing this is a huge step towards Finding Inner Peace that you are craving.
Though on the outside your goal may seemingly be to simply resolve the problems you have with overeating, emotional eating, binge eating, your marriage or love relationship, challenges with your kids or elderly parents, a demanding boss, drinking or prescription drug addiction, or financial debt,
At the deepest level if someone offered you eternal inner peace and bliss, instead, wouldn’t you take it?
Isn’t that what your heart truly craves?
After all, isn’t that how you got into the mess you are in now, to some degree?
Did you not overspend, overwork, overeat, over drink, or seek love in all the wrong places so that you could feel and Find Inner Peace, belonging, connection, love, and happiness?
There is nothing wrong with wanting these things.
In fact, the important insight to gain here is that love, connection, and peace are what you truly want and the new car, lovely boyfriend, model child, dream job, beautiful home, food, or drink, is not going to give you that, in the long run.
In the short run, of course, you will experience pleasure from tasty food, an exciting and passionate relationship, or a prized and desired possession.
Unfortunately,
one of the Universal Laws, like gravity, is that that which brings us pleasure also brings us pain. There is no way to avoid this and no one or nothing is to blame.
Even the ideal love in our life who only wishes to please us has to separate from us at some point since death is inevitable.
Knowing this at the deepest level, we never really do receive complete fulfillment from our achievements or the possessions we acquire.
That’s because we know that it’s all temporary...
We can’t hold on to any success or any asset that we attain, ultimately.
no matter what is going on externally . . .
When we are experiencing challenges in one area of life or another, whether it be our health or relationship, it’s always a symptom of our whole system wanting equilibrium.
There is no area of life that is separate from another area. At the deepest level, no matter what is going on externally, when we struggle with that thing, we are giving up what we truly desire: Finding Inner Peace and connection with all of life.
We see that nature is connected to all aspects of itself and we, too, were created to feel that unity within.
“Problems” result when we separate ourselves from our deepest inner Source and overly focus on controlling the people and situations around us, including ourselves.
Ironically, this understanding is the key to happiness that many of us have been searching for.
When you grasp the fact that all areas of your life are connected and that fulfillment can’t be sustained by simply fixing the superficial surface problems you face, there is less of a need to futilely force solutions in areas that are challenging.
The freedom to see your life as one unit is that it can give you the realization that every area that’s a “problem” is only a symptom of your own level of relating to it.
The fact that you have aspects of your life that are working can be a guide for you in how to create that which you desire. Your health, relationships, and work lives aren’t really as separate as they appear to be at first glance.
There’s a lot written about positive thinking and how your thoughts create reality. Sometimes this information is less than helpful because we don’t always find in our experience that it’s possible to just “change your thinking.”
After all, your thoughts are a deeply imbedded habit and you are most likely so identified with your thoughts much of the time that they not only feel “right” but it may seem as though they are who you actually are.
The great news is that:
your thoughts are NOT who you are.
If they were, who is the person who is aware of them, witnessing them and vehemently agreeing with them, or chastising you for having them?
That person is your next layer of thought! The point is that there is more than one level to your consciousness. To simplify, you can think of just two parts of yourself.
The first is your Reactive, Chatter-Box Mind in your head and the second is your Center, your Source, Your Wise Mind in your Heart.
It can actually be helpful to think of the Reactive Mind as being located in your Head and your Wise Mind in your Heart.
In this way, you can begin to relate to two distinct locations within yourself that you can go to for answers.
You’ll begin to see from experience, that depending on where you seek, you’ll get very different results.
The reason why you may be more identified with Mr. or Mrs. Reactive Mind is because undoubtedly he or she is much louder, invasive, and dominating.
So, he or she gets you to listen and pay attention.
The problem is that as much as this Reactive Mind entices you with pleasure—the pleasure of tasty food on the tongue, an alcoholic beverage to soothe away your troubles and help you forget, a brand new vehicle or outfit that is out of your financial range right now—what the Reactive Mind doesn’t tell you, in that moment, is how much pain you will experience later, mentally, physically and emotionally, due to your choice.
But if you live long enough, sooner or later, the tragic cycle becomes evident.
Your clothes no longer fit, your spouse leaves you because you are an alcoholic or just unavailable, and the debt collectors are ringing your phone off the hook.
Even then, Reactive Mind is sure to be chattering in your ear guaranteeing you the perfect “solution.” It’s in that moment when you hit rock bottom, that you can finally begin to become aware that the treasure you have been seeking, the love and grace that you have been longing for, is actually real and it’s here now.
The irony is, it’s not at all where you thought it was. It’s in the most unlikely place of all—it’s in YOU! That Source of love, wisdom, and true peace is not out there in the world but it’s the Wise Mind in your heart.
Why did you not notice it before?
You may not have been aware of your brilliant, intelligent, ever-present Center before because there are conditions that are required for you to access it.
These conditions are:
- Humility – You must have a sense of appreciation for this sacred part of yourself.
- Openness – You must welcome your Divine Self fully and completely and know that you need it and that it is here for you always.
- Silence – It doesn’t compete with your noisy mind chatter. It just waits silently until you are willing to go deeper within yourself and Listen.
- Listening – You must listen to the voice of Truth and Wisdom. It rides on your breath and is heard from the spaciousness of your eternal heart. You must be quiet and patient; take time to go inside and listen with the ear of your heart.
It’s from this place that all your problems are solved and all your perceptions are miraculously changed.
The outcome is that toxic, harmful foods that used to be appealing now look disgusting to you.
When you are in tune with the Wise Voice of your Heart, the idea of going back to the bar and sitting with the same people talking about the same things suddenly feels very foreign and unappealing to you.
As you settle into and connect with your Center, you intuitively find yourself beginning to know what to say and do with your co-workers, boss, kids, parents, and friends to deepen your relationships so that they are much more satisfying and fulfilling to you.
The measure of what you say, think, or do becomes, “How am I of service to myself and others today?”
“What is the next thought, word, or action I can create and how will that best impact myself and everyone around me?”
When your consciousness is uplifted, a new level of peace is created that emanates from within you.
Your solutions are no longer limited to dieting, manipulating, or forcing.
This new freedom then trickles out from you...
As you bask in it you may realize the connectedness of all aspects of your life...
The truth becomes evident, “I am One. I am at peace. Everything is happening exactly as it should be.”
