At this time of year, a season of frenzy, extending a wish for peace is high on the list of wishes being exchanged between family members, friends, neighbours and professional colleagues. Even complete strangers join in the tradition. These peace offerings have become so normalized, that they roll off of our tongues without us having to be fully conscious of their release. But my question is, “Shouldn’t good wishes for peace be season agnostic?” Why do we confine these muscular exhortations to the Christmas season? After all, for some individuals, the challenge to achieve peace (in one’s mind and one’s life), is a lifelong pursuit.
To me, the peace challenge in essence, has become a journey in how to remain mentally indefatigable in the midst of chaos, flux and fluidity, as time and life, march on. It’s easy to feel lost and confused in the continuing battle to not lose one’s mental balance, when life shows up in full force. However, the ability to remain unconfused, I believe, is one of the greatest gifts of goodwill that individuals can give to themselves, in this season of peace……and beyond.
How about if we start by promising ourselves that we will not be overwhelmed by life?
There are just so many lessons to be learnt about what to do and what not to do, in the pursuit of peace, especially during this season of frenzy. One unhelpful lesson would be how to surrender our peace at the slightest provocation, whilst another would be how to allow it to be destroyed by others. One helpful lesson, however, would be how to rise above the situations and circumstances that threaten to derail that same peace. Of course, how the learnings from these lessons are applied, is a completely different story. The more enlightened and empowered souls master the positive lessons and breeze through their application, whilst the more unfortunate ones doom themselves to repeating the class until the lesson is learnt.
We live in a volatile society, in which interpersonal interactions, the demands of life and external forces intersect with such might, that mastering any habit that allows us to prevent self-inflicted, psychological malpractice, will give us a fighting chance at achieving inner peace, as well as being at peace with life.
We begin to understand that failure isn’t fatal, but a necessary step in getting to the successful outcome….eventually.
Let’s call this journey our season of peace journey. How about if we start by promising ourselves that we will not be overwhelmed by life? This is one of my favourite mantras and a guiding philosophy that I believe, can help individuals to resist the urge to collapse emotionally, when adverse circumstances show up, often uninvited.
Humans are wired to expect catastrophe. At the slightest hint that some circumstance can go either right or wrong, we expect instantly, that the worst will happen. The minute the catastrophic urge takes hold, it becomes really hard to walk ourselves back to a positive mindset. Now, we know that this is a genetic predisposition that started with early mankind having to be ever vigilant about not becoming dinner for some animal, so unwiring ourselves from this mentality can be quite the challenge.
Whenever as individuals, we decide to not be overwhelmed by life and really commit to the challenging inner work required to conquer ourselves and the inner forces that are always in a state of tension, our entire outlook on life shifts.
Peace becomes a state that is created and manufactured by the pilgrim on the journey. It is not a condition that one bolts on.
Feelings of inadequacy turn into curiosity to test the limits of our endurance. We begin to give ourselves permission to pursue dreams that were held hostage by fear of failure. We begin to understand that failure isn’t fatal, but a necessary step in getting to the successful outcome….eventually.
We embrace the hint of derision in their voices, when persons tell us that we’re “emotional,” because we understand that humans are designed to be emotional beings and that “being emotional” is only a handicap when we allow ourselves to be controlled by the particular emotion. We begin to understand that as individuals who occupy positions of leadership in businesses, showing emotion becomes a strength that humanizes the leader and broadens his or her appeal across the workforce.
On our season of peace journey, we discover the courage to be comfortable with being disliked. The need to please everyone ceases to be a core desire that holds us hostage to behaviours that cause us deep distress. We cease to be conflict-avoidant and no longer “swallow what should be spat out.” It’s a very liberating feeling, to know that you no longer have to be the sacrificial lamb.
The uplifting news, is that achieving the peace that you want, depends simply on the driving force of your desire.
This season of peace journey brings out some very interesting “truths.” We begin to realize that authentic peace resides within ourselves, so that there’s no longer the need to “pursue” peace. Peace becomes a state that is created and manufactured by the pilgrim on the journey. It is not a condition that one bolts on.
So, for persons who may be thinking of progressing their journey to peace, there’s scary news and there’s uplifting news. The scary news, is that for this adventure, you will have to be willing to lose sight of your shoreline by saying goodbye to familiar ways. The uplifting news, is that achieving the peace that you want, depends simply on the driving force of your desire.
When the desire becomes strong enough…….the journey will begin