Finding Peace in Our Lives

Finding Peace in Our Lives

By Leah and Des

Sometimes I hear things I don’t agree with and react by trying to correct the one who I feel is wrong. Over time though, I’ve begun to recognise this as me (or my ego) simply wanting to be right whether I am or not LOL The being right and making the other wrong seems to become more important than just trying to understand what the other is saying and feeling. It feels a bit like being taken over by a strange force that drains the energy out of us. Sometimes when I’m wrong, my ego gets bashed, bruised and wounded and I feel weak and hurt. These “ego-battles” seem to go on endlessly every day in discussion forums across social networks on the web. I know quite a few people who end up feeling exhausted and drained as a result.

But I feel that below the surface of the disharmony we sometimes feel, there is peace to be found, through our awareness of the present moment and our eternally calm spiritual self that is one with all in the universe. For most things these days, when someone says something I don’t like, I take a step back and just observe my reaction to it, take some time to feel calm and perhaps, if I feel like it, I can then respond without involving the ego...doing this, I feel more confident in what I say or write, both before and after.....there are no more hurt feelings and drama involved and life seems to go much easier. It doesn’t work all the time though...takes practice and I’ve still got a long way to go...its a neverending journey.

Some people may call this spiritual self, God, the Atman, higher self or many other names, and I say each to their own. I’m just trying to describe a peaceful stillness that we all have below the surface of all the noise in our heads that can bring some joy and peace into our lives and others once we become aware of it. I hope others will find their own descriptions of this inner peace – maybe we don’t even need a description at all. I just hope that some of these words may help and strike a chord with some people out there.

When we feel hurt and unappreciated, I feel that it is our ego’s that are hurt and not our true or spiritual selves. To me, the spiritual self remains unaffected by the mental noise and problems we feel we are facing every day. Sometimes even with good awareness the pain and hurt we feel remains for a while, almost carried along with its own momentum, but with awareness it eventually subsides. I help myself in my spiritual path by simply being mindful of my thoughts. When I feel strongly about something, I watch the thoughts without trying to stop them or get caught up in them. It seems that by doing this and with practice, distressing thoughts have much less power over us in our daily lives. I found that in the beginning of my spiritual travels, focussing on the breathing was a good starting point and its also helpful to become aware of how our body feels from moment to moment.

I have a really hard time with a lot of these things I’m writing about though when I think of people who are unable to feed themselves, never mind think of spirituality, but for those of us who can, perhaps the insights we find through our spiritual journeys will lead us to places in our lives where we can do something to help those who can’t help themselves.

I feel that the cause of the hurt, pain, fears and problems we all face are due to the belief that the mind and body are all that we are. Would it help us more if we also recognized the deep stillness within us and all of nature as who we truly are? Our mind, our thoughts, emotions, desires, wishes, likes and dislikes are all a part of what makes us human beings though. I am not saying that these things are wrong in any way. Am just saying that when we believe these things are all that we are, we may be drifting away from a path towards peace within ourselves and on earth. By changing ourselves we are also changing others because we are all connected and the peace we feel ourselves will be reflected in every aspect of our lives and others around us.


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