Peace can seem far away at times. But if we remain true to our true selves, we always have the means to express it in ourselves and in our lives.
What if you tried closing your eyes and focusing on your body? Watch and feel what’s going on inside you with your mind’s eye.
How was it? Were you able to do it? If it was hard, try pressing somewhere on your body with your thumb. Focus on the pressing sensation. Keep your awareness on how it feels for a couple of minutes.
After doing this simple meditation for coming back to ourselves, do you feel a bit more relaxed and refocused? With practice, it can also be the means by which you get a sense of being alive. Feeling inside ourselves is a path to knowing who we really are.
I’ve written about that a lot on this blog, and that we all stem from one root—the source of life—and that this gives us inherent, absolute value. I would even go so far to say that discovering this value and actualizing it in the material world, i.e., choosing to live as our true selves, is the real reason we’ve come into the world as human beings. And that loosing sight of our root and our common, limitless value is the cause of humanity holding onto conflict and injustice, even while we all cry out for peace.
Peace Is Simple . . .
Peace can actually be very simple. We just need to play well with each other and with ourselves. We can breathe, smile, dance, and appreciate all that we have—both the “good” and the “bad.”
But we all know that inner and outer peace is not so simple when, instead of seeing the whole picture, we only focus on part of it. Instead of looking at the whole tree, we miss the roots and only see the branches. From this limited perspective, differences are obvious. So we look at one another and say, “You are different from me. You are not me.”
From there, it’s not far to get to, “I need this for my security and happiness. I need that for recognition and validation.” And then we can reach, “You took that from me. I need it and if you have it then I can’t.”
If Our Egos Don’t Control Us
We have thoughts such as these when our egos are dominating our brains. I consider this as the brain functioning abnormally. Our brain works abnormally when we are only focused on the desires of our egos.
There is nothing to be ashamed of about having an ego. Day exists because night exists. We learn courage because we have fear, forgiveness because we have resentment, and love because we have hate. We awaken to our true selves and true value because we have ignorance of the ego. It’s just a process.
If we want our brains to function at their optimum potential, in which they are able to access the peace, love, oneness, and creative power that lies at the root of who we are, then we need to turn our attention to the desires of our true selves instead of the desires of our egos. Our true selves are the expression—through our brains and then our bodies—of our purest essence.
To do this, we can set a vision for how we want to be and what we want to create in our lives and in the world that reflects our true selves. We’ll know what it is when thinking about it makes us feel lighter and brighter and when our hearts pound with excitement.
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The Ego Fights Back
Of course, as soon as we make up our minds to achieve this vision at all costs, our egos will put up a fight. Feeling the loss of what they want or even feeling like they are “dying,” our egos throw up warnings and resistance. Our minds fill with negative scenarios, and we feel afraid and anxious. Regrets and attachments assail us. Such resistance is the resistance of our preconceptions, the resistance of our desires.
That’s when we need to jump in with both feet. Resistance will always be there, so we don’t need to mind it. Thinking doesn’t help because it’s our thinking that’s keeping us captive in the first place. More productive thoughts will come once we get moving toward our goals.
The persistence and resilience we maintain in the face of the ego’s resistance creates a strong connection between our minds and the root of who we are. The stronger that connection becomes, the more we can think, speak, and act as our true selves.
A deeply rooted tree is not shaken by the wind. The genuine peace we find when living as our true selves cannot be dislodged by any conflict or fear around us. Unclear information cannot overrun our inner sense of truth.
Until our true selves have completely wrenched control over our brains and bodies away from our egos, we’ll still sometimes find ourselves confused, afraid, resentful, angry—the opposite of peaceful. At those times, we can always return to the feeling of life in our bodies. Our bodies are always there to ground our minds and emotions.
From this place where we recognize our value and the value of all others, we can create peace.
Related Posts
- The Prayer of Peace
- [Video] Meditation for Feeling the Love of Your True Self Within
- How to Speak from Our True Selves
- Finding Yourself in Stillness
- Connecting with Yourself Is More Important than Anything Else
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