How I Discovered Peace Was Always Waiting For Me
By Sukradeva Ishaya
And so the search began. At least, that is my first memory of my search for peace - the first time I consciously chose to find peace. Until this realisation, experiencing peace was merely a memory from childhood.
Sure there were times when I was content, but it wasn't the same as when I was younger.
Sure there were times I would fall into a peaceful kind of experience. Watching the sunset on the ocean was a favorite. Peace would be there. Then it left when I left the beach.
While painting a favorite subject, all sense of anything would fall away, and there was simply the pure experience of painting. No sense of torment. No sense of anguish. Just being super-present without a sense of a "me" doing the painting. Just peace.
However, this wasn't like childhood, when there was an unbroken experience of peace and contentment for no reason. I knew nothing other than peace, and the world became quite a dramatic place when I left that experience.
I could see that I didn't return to peace in my later childhood. I stayed with the drama and the pain and anguish that accompany it. I forgot what I had been born with and remembered as my earliest experience.
Peace was what I was born into, and I had forgotten. I had forgotten my birthright.
What You Focus On Grows
I learned later in life that there are several things that we often identify with, things we give energy to simply by placing our attention on them. Typically with an underlying belief that something is wrong with our experience of them.
We can put these into four main categories:
HEALTH
When we have pain, we think something is wrong and often self-diagnose (or consult Dr Google). All the while, lots of thinking is taking place as our focus moves to the many things that we believe may be wrong.
MONEY
When we want something and need more money than we currently have to purchase it we focus on believing that something is wrong with the situation.
We think about it, try to sort it out in our head, and take the appropriate action, only to find we often fall flat on our faces. Or we can buy it and then realise that buying what we want does not grant lasting happiness. Happiness was short-lived.
RELATIONSHIPS
The ups and downs of relationships generally, particularly in romantic relationships. These can be very confusing as we try to understand the other person/people. We either act how we think they would want us to or talk to them and convince them they should be acting the way we think they should be. Cause and effect. Right and wrong. Good and Bad.
WORLD EVENTS
It can be very confusing when we don't understand what is happening in the world. Perhaps natural events occurring in Mother Nature (we call disasters) or the acts of leaders on the world stage. So many examples I could list here.
In every one of the four areas above, there is one thing that wasn't happening. I had lost my center for peace to the point I had forgotten it existed. I had forgotten that I could move my attention to peace and my experience of the situation would change. The events may not change, but the way I experienced them would.
If You Want Peace Make It A Priority
Where I put my focus I began to create more in my life. If I focused on peace, I created more peace. More focus on drama, I created more drama. WOW. This was a revelation to me when I discovered this.
All my childhood memories came flooding back. I remembered a peaceful experience was the only way I lived life when young. I remembered throwing a tantrum when I couldn't get my way, giving up the tantrum and peace was present once again.
The richness and smoothness of a painting would reveal itself on the canvas once I let go of the frustration of it not looking quite how I envisaged. All a choice and all part of letting go of the experience I was having when things were confusing, painful, and too much emotion and thinking was occurring. Always, ALWAYS peace revealed itself.
The barrier of incessant thinking or hyper emotions naturally dropped away when I realised my birthright was a simple choice away.
Peace Naturally Shares Itself
The people around me would notice. It would spread. I recall many conflict situations. I recall deciding to not engage the other person in the conflict. I would keep quiet and not engage in their drama, I would not respond to their words or emotions.
Pretty soon, they would run out of words to say. Their emotion would subside. By not engaging, there was no fuel for the fire. I would experience peace internally. The result is that they too would experience a sense of peace.
Most events in our life are not so dramatic, but the principles are the same, no matter how subtle the experience. People may comment, "She is so great to be around" or "Your house always looks/feels amazing". Or it may be that people simply like being around you. Because of the magnetic nature of the choice for peace others are attracted - even if they have no words to explain why.
It All Starts With You, With Your Choice
The ability to choose to experience peace is always an inside job. The result of that choice is that the energy of choice spreads outside of you. You begin to experience peace inside and in the world around you. Magnetic.
The idea of there being a separate peace, a "your peace", and a "my peace" disappears and there is simply "peace." Not mine. Not yours. Just Peace.
Why not give it a go and see for yourself?
