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 When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others

~ Peace Pilgrim

 

In the midst of daily stories of war, hate and violence, natural disasters, destructive consumerism, and rabid competition, how do you turn down the volume and carve out a place for serenity and calm? Do you need to become a monk or a recluse to experience peace?

Peace is elusive but it is possible. It is a choice and when we nurture it from within, it grows. In fact, the secret truth about inner peace is that it can support you to meet the global noise with inward stillness whilst fully participating in your life. The quiet state of being that is peace can become a growing and strengthened part of your experience everyday, no matter what the circumstances.

What Disturbs Inner Peace?

Many factors play a critical role in disturbing your inner peace but, when you unconsciously allow yourself to indulge the distractions and fears that are the low hanging fruit of our current reality, you disconnect from your peace potential.

Take a moment to answer the following questions. How many describe your present life? Feel free to add some of your own peace disruptions to the list:

• How much time to you spend engaged in reading about, discussing and hearing the negative, tragic events and suffering in newspapers, social media and on television?
• Do you feel pulled in many directions by the needs of others that tug at your emotions, cause stress and spin you out of control?
• Do you doubt that peace is even possible in the midst of global and personal upheaval and dramas that are confusing, exhausting and yet somehow impossible to ignore?
• Are you finding yourself pulled in to other people’s dramas, anger and angst that steal your time and sap your energy?

 

Are You Hardwired for Peace or Violence?

According to Australian psychologist and author, Robin Grille, whether you are inclined to be peaceful or violent in adulthood is a learned response that begins at birth/infancy. It is a product of how you are treated within your environment. He suggests that a loving, supportive and safe upbringing generates a more constant secretion of oxytocin, which switches on the empathy centers in the brain that are neurological building blocks for peace. When an infant is under siege and stress from harsh, punishing or neglectful parenting, a neurotoxin, cortisol is released instead, which shuts down empathy and thus constricts the potential for inner peace.

Grille’s concepts are born out and supported by biologist and author, Dr. Bruce Lipton . His extensive and leading edge research and book, The Biology of Belief, suggests that our personality is not genetically pre-determined but is influenced by our external environment.

 

Suggested Viewing: Robin Grille’s question, “How do we unlock the peace code in the human brain and help it to find its’ full expression?” is a powerful one which he discusses in this enlightening YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHlvAm4huQs

 

Steps to Promoting Inner Peace

These practices will help generate a serene response system that grows your ability to remain centered and calm during distractions and stress in daily life:

• Begin a regular meditation practice – take 5 to 10 minutes to focus on your breath to the exclusion of all other outside noise
• Do your personal work – identify and heal the inner conflicts – through Breathwork, therapy, self-growth paths
• Simplify – Reduce the clutter and excess in your life, home, relationships and social activities –
  • make your surroundings zen
  • focus on smaller To Do lists
  • trade time on social media for time outdoors in nature
  • spend quality, dedicated time with loved ones
• Accept what is – let go of judgment, resistance and trying to control life events and outcomes as the ego thinks they should be.
• Be Forgiving – release the need to suffer by forgiving yourself and others for perceived mistakes or wrongs
• Do what inspires you – align with your heart’s work and take time to be curious enough to explore what that is
• Take the time to be peaceful – do what you do quietly and calmly even in the midst of chaos and change – use the breath to maintain inner balance
• Cease to terrorise yourself – stop the war with yourself, suspend self-criticism, self-punishment and self-doubt
• Commit to growing peace every day – believe you are loved, be kind to yourself and others, appreciate and be grateful for 5 things each day
• Be aware of your thoughts – change from fear and judgment to love and acceptance – challenge yourself to shift your thinking each day

 

Inner peace is possible through intention, vigilance and love. At the essence of who you are, you are love and peace. When you learn that, you can use that awareness to inform how you think, feel and act in your life. Once you step through the doorway of serenity and self-love, your life is transformed by the permanence of the deep peace you have re-discovered. At that point, you know at a heart level, that it always was and that it can never be destroyed.

All works of love are works of peace ~ Mother Teresa

Please feel free to share your ideas about Peace and Inner Peace below. Is the world less or more peaceful in your view? Are you?

 

Visit www.johnstamoulos.com to find out more about the healing power of your breath through the powerful process of Breathwork.