Happy Thursday!
In my last newsletter, I wrote about making room for Peace. Today, I want to take that theme further.
It is one thing to feel Peace in a reflective moment. It is another thing to keep it when life starts spinning again.
It is meaningful, profound, and uplifting to find Peace in prayer or stillness. This was true for me last week as I observed Greek Orthodox Holy Week. I spent many hours with my head bowed in deep reflection. I call it my “urban spiritual detox.” My Peace was quickly tested when I returned to answering emails, meeting deadlines, and dealing with a couple of people who were emotionally unloading on me. I am pretty sure you have had your version of this when complaints, criticism, blame, or chaos try to make a home in your mind and body.
This is where many people lose their Inner Peace. The upsetting, annoying, maddening moment passes on the outside, yet it still sets a fire on the inside. You replay conversations. You keep arguing or defending in your head for hours and days on end. You find yourself firing off text messages or emails like missiles.
What happened to the Peace you were just experiencing? Poof! It is gone.
There are those people who move through life by discharging whatever they do not want to feel. They drop it into conversations through tone, blame, passive aggression, entitlement, or constant complaint. If you are empathic, thoughtful, or used to keeping the Peace, it is a lot to hold while still maintaining your center.
What I have learned is that protecting your Peace is less about controlling other people and more about refusing to let their behavior become your inner atmosphere.
That takes awareness, maturity, and the ability to remember that someone else’s lack of self-control does not require you to lose your center. Ergo, their stuff does not, nor should it, become yours to mind.
There is a difference between compassion and absorption. Compassion can witness pain. Absorption takes it into the body, mind, and spirit as if it now belongs there. One is loving. The other is exhausting.
Whether you realize it or not, this affects you. Your body feels the tension. Your mind keeps circling what happened. Your spirit is disturbed. Consciously protecting your Inner Peace is an act of discernment. If it is not yours to carry, leave it at the door.
A Peace Practice: Notice What You Are Carrying
Think about a recent interaction that stayed with you longer than it should have. Maybe someone was unkind, demanding, defensive, dismissive, or emotionally messy. Whatever it was, they left you feeling tight in your stomach and unsettled in your thoughts.
Take a few minutes and write about that moment.
Then ask:
What in this experience is actually mine?
What belongs to the other person?
Where did I begin carrying what I never needed to carry?
Then write one sentence that helps you put down that situation.
Personal Reflection
This reflection, inspired by the practices in Take a Shot at Happiness, helps you take a deeper look at what affects your Peace and what restores it.
Photo Op
Capture an image of something that remains fully itself even when conditions around it are changing. It may be a tree in the wind, a doorway standing open, a mountain that has seen every kind of weather, or a single candle still lit at the end of the day. Let your image reflect the kind of Peace you want to keep, even when life around you is unsettled.
Action Opportunity
Consider: where have you been letting someone else’s behavior live too long in your body, mind, or spirit? Write a few lines about what you are ready to release and what Peace looks like to you now. Save it in the Take a Shot at Happiness App with your image.
Keep exploring ⬇️
I am continuing to explore Peace through my Best Holistic Life article, a podcast conversation, transformational travel journeys, and the Take a Shot at Happiness App. My hope is that each one supports your wholebeing in mind, body, and spirit and helps you come back to yourself with greater care and intention.
