By: Lisa Templeton, Ph.D.
Peace starts with yourself and grows. Albert Einstein stated, “Mere praise of peace is easy and ineffective. What is needed is active participation in the fight against war and everything which leads to it.” Conflict, judgment, blame, jealousy, and shame are primary ingredients that lead to war. Unfortunately, these energies are strewn all over our society – amongst social media, in our office settings, our churches, our families, friendships, and even in our relationship to ourselves. In order to create peace in the world, we must work to create peace within ourselves.
To practice living in the energy of peace, take an honest, loving, and compassionate look within and slow down to listen to the dialogue and thought patterns running through our minds. Literally, think about what you are thinking about. Stop and take notice of any conflict, judgment, or blame within, perhaps as a result of a mistake you made, or not feeling good enough. Consider how you might feel if someone else said the same thing you are saying to yourself. How would you feel?
Many of us don’t have the same reaction to our own abusive thoughts as we would from others externally. This leads me to conclude that many are numb and not aware of how their internal thoughts are impacting how they perceive the world and themselves. We cannot allow ourselves to be desensitized to violence and abuse within ourselves. We must listen to what we hear, the negative words, the energy of judgment, and meet it with more curiosity, understanding, unconditional love, and compassion.
We are living in a society that does not offer much power to the people. We must take our power back and exercise the sovereignty of our minds. Listen very closely and remember that any thought you have doesn’t have to be who you are. If you don’t like it, change it, root it out, and plant more positive affirmations, more truthful, compassionate, and understanding statements to yourself. If you notice an inner judgment, speak kindly to it and let it know that those words hurt, and you don’t want to engage with that energy any longer. Set an intention to practice more peace.
If we want peace, we must meet up with the conflictual parts of ourselves and teach these parts more about the characteristics of peace – understanding, clear communication, unconditional love, and acknowledgment, along with a softness, a spaciousness, and a quiet calm that lives within ourselves. We each have the power to own and transform how we are relating to ourselves, especially if we listen and explore our inner landscape. As we each actively participate in this practice, the ripples of peace will grow in our lives and in our world.