Wednesday; January 13

          Every once in a while, I just need to go to a special place and try to find inner peace.  (That sounds a bit new age, but truth knows no time table.)  Periodically, when I do this, I will do an internet search on “peace” and see what pops us.  I recently did this and three observations caught my attention:

1.  The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence. I have enough challenges in my life, why on earth would I want to make things more difficult for me?  Yet I do!  Norman Vincent Peale reminds us that we can all do ourselves a favor by making our lives less stressful.  When our stress level goes down, our quality of life goes up.

2.  Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.  I am not sure which of the Dalai Lamas made this observation, but I like it.  Even though I may not share fundamental spiritual principles with them, I agree that one of my biggest problems is when I allow others rob me of my peace.  In fact, all too often, I give it up freely by taking on someone else’s angst.  I need to guard my inner peace from the conflict brought by others.

3.  When things change inside you, things change around you.  I wish I could give credit for this anonymous quote, but even if I don’t know the source, it is insightful.  Too often, the chaos I see in the world around me mirrors what is going on inside me.  Is it that world is in a mess or am I the one all stirred up and projecting my crisis outwardly? Let’s search for inner peace and see if it helps calm the world around us.

          Think About It

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