Peace is always a choice away.

Today's full episode has been recorded on video, but feel free to read through text version below also.

What does peace of mind mean to you?

How do you find inner peace?

Lately I am finding many of us are struggling to find peace in our very busy lives.  I know this has always been a major life lesson for me.  

As a mom, life coach, and school counselor at an urban high school, there was a time, I felt that peace was an impossible dream.  Something only those who lived alone, with easy desk jobs, and cleaning ladies could achieve.  I’d wake up early in the morning and start running right away.  Shower dress and bark orders at my boys.  I was living life from one obligation to the next and running on fumes.

But, what was my choice?  I had commitments.The job as challenging. People were depending on me …. Right?!

That is the story I told myself for many years … that peace was only found somewhere else, in another time, in another place, not for me. Not now.

But I was so wrong.  After many tough lessons with my health, I learned that I had to cultivate peace in the midst of the chaos.  My life depended on it.  (And I continue to work on this through self-care and compassion.)
 
This quote by an unknown author has served as my email signature for many years.  It says,

PEACE.  It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.  It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

Eventually I found ways to be calm in my heart.  I first created a morning routine that was gentler.  I needed to awaken and set a positive mindset, before running off to check things off my list.

I changed my route to school to eliminate stressful traffic jams and potholes this allowed for an amazing view of the sunrise over a local pond while listening to my morning meditation music playlist.

At school, I took time to create an environment that reminded me to breathe and go within when things got crazy.  I started playing a spa music playlist on my computer and low lighting to set a calm atmosphere.  No matter what is brought to my attention or what emergencies I am facing, I know I can handle them better  with “calm in my heart.”  I now realize that the peace is always available.  I only need to choose it within instead of reacting to the craziness outside of me.

This leads to my second lesson that in peace that I learned from Wayne Dyer.

Peace is the result of retraining the mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.

This is a big one!  At first you may think that I am asking you to give up on change, or settle for less, but that is not the message at all.  

This past year taught me a lot about what I can control and what I do not control.  January started with a lump in my breast that had to be surgically removed, but was thankfully benign.  As I nested and prepared  my home for my recuperation, a pipe burst on the second floor destroying my son’s room, my kitchen, bathroom, and family room.  If that wasn’t a message about control, I don’t know what was.

While waiting for the insurance settlement, I found a second lump and this one was cancer.  Very treatable, but still very serious.  So as we finally began construction and repairs on our home, I underwent a second lumpectomy and radiation treatments.  

Anyone who has had work done on their home, knows that it is not at all a peaceful process!!!  In the beginning I struggled with overwhelm from all of the stress.  I felt I had lost control of my health and my home.  But, lessons I learned many years ago, when I ad lost both my parents as a teen, reminded me that I had a choice on how I processed the events.  We always have a choice.  It was what it was and wallowing would not changes the circumstances.  I remembered that I needed to find my joy and peace in the way things were not in how I thought they should be.

So, I embraced my challenges.  I actually celebrated my challenges.  I found ways to see the gifts in my cancer and in the home damage.  I started with simple things like the soft pink johnny with little gold anchors that was gifted to me for extra comfort during my treatment.  Then there were the amazing doctors, nurses and therapists that treated me daily.  I also had my beautiful friends who showed me love and support and taught me the gift of receiving graciously.  I celebrated my family and their strength and positive mindset that carried me through the discomfort of it all.

The secret to peace is to find the gifts.  Seek out the beauty!  It is always there.  Always.  In sickness and in health.  In good times and in bad.  Always.  It just takes practice, but this shift makes all of the difference.

In conclusion, I'd like to share the beautiful poem, “Peace of the Wild Things” by Wendell Berry that can teach us how to find peace in a crazy world. 

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of the wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time, I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

What freed the narrator from his pain and anxiety?  He sought grounding in nature.  He believed in something bigger than himself and he focused on the power of the present as opposed to the fear of the future.

These are available to each of us at no cost.  No matter what is happening to us on the outside, peace is always a choice away.

Your Sunday Soul-Care Musical Selection

I consider music one of the strongest soul-soothers.  Below I've shared a video to one of my favorite morning meditation songs.  I hope you will find this as uplifting and inspirational as I do!  Enjoy!