A fulfilling life starts with peace, a sense of calmness permeating your being, overcoming circumstances and distractions. Without peace, it is more difficult to experience joy or attain accomplishment.
Peace may be present, but it is not toes in warm sand listening to the crashing waves or soaking in the majestic scenery from the mountaintop. Nor is peace absent when you violently react to an idiot cutting you off on the highway or a four-hour flight delay.
Peace is where you are, not someplace you go. Peace provides the ability to remain calm during the storm and an awareness that there are constellations of shining stars merely obscured by the city’s light pollution. It persists during illness, financial distress, and while grieving the loss of a loved one.
Source Code
Peace prevails when our actions are in alignment with our standards and values. This state of being requires self-reflection, looking internally to determine what is right and worthy.
By standards, I am referring to your code of conduct, which includes honesty, integrity, fairness, etc. When your actions conform to your standards, you can be at peace. When they do not, you cannot. Unless you are a psychopath, anxiety accompanies dishonesty.
By values, I refer to what you believe is worthy of pursuing. Most want to be a loving family member, servant to others, professionally successful, etc. Like your code of conduct, when you pursue worthy endeavors, you are more peaceful and less so when you do not. Consider your peace when playing with your children at the park or chasing the deal enabling you to buy a Maserati.
The driving force behind my peace is believing in a God who unfailingly loves all. This faith surpasses any predicament and my inability to understand why bad things happen to good people.
The Enemy
Ironically, we need protection from the very thing providing our peace-enabling standards: our ego. Regretfully, the ego also ignites feelings, stealing our peace.
Our need for control prevents us from accepting (not acquiescing to) matters beyond our control. We rage against the traffic and impossibly long “serving” politicians hopelessly out of touch with their constituents rather than control the only thing we can: our response. This concept is an essential element of the 12-step spiritual practice, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can….”
Our need for acceptance compels us to valueless actions. We work too much to buy clothes, cars, and jewelry we do not need to impress people we do not like so we can belong to a crowd that does not share our values.
Even though my home possesses every necessary and desirable comfort, my ego generates envy by reminding me of friends with multiple houses, each with market values that are multiples of my home’s. One’s primary residence is four times larger. Another sold a home for more than 100 times my home’s appraised value (not worth).
Our ego continually provides unjustified reasons disrupting our peace: holding onto the past, taking things too personally, anxiety about the future, etc. We cannot permanently eradicate this inner voice, but we can subdue it by remembering our self-determined values. For this reason, most teachers are not envious; they value educating children over the luxuries acquired through higher-paying professions.
Note. Although peace is independent of conditions, you contribute to favorable ones with proper nutrition, good sleep, and regular physical and mental activity.
For those concerned that peace destroys ambition, reserve judgment until you read the upcoming message on accomplishment.
Our Charge
Peace is the emotional state that empowers you to pursue your values, experience life fully, and accomplish the important. While our egos and circumstances may conspire to make it elusive, peace is attainable as it comes from within.