True Peace

Many people view peace as the lack or absence of uncomfortable emotions; they often state, ―If I stuff down these uncomfortable feelings, I can finally find some peace.‖True peace, however, is not the nonexistence of pain and discomfort; it is its own feeling that reflects the belief of being innocent. In the U.S., there arewhatI callculturally predominant feelings: happiness or sadness, fear or excitement, anger or acceptance. But peace is not among these. The feeling of peace is, well, lost.

Peace is a feeling in and of itself. Until I could resolve my own self-hatred, shame and fear that came from my troubled youth, I knew of no other way to stop the pain except to push it away. Though buried, it still upstaged any feeling of true peace inside of me. I thought peace was something I would attain when I was more financially secure orin a good relationship. I now know that we already ―own‖ peace; it is already inside each and every one of us, waiting for us to be capable of choosing to connect with it. This capability comes from becoming conscious of, and then correcting, any beliefs that say we don’t deserve it. Peace is your birthright, a truth you will realize as you let go of your self-blame and come to know your innocence.

The ability to fully enter into your own heartmeans embracing all of your emotions, recognizing that pain is only a signal for the need to correct mistaken beliefs. Sometimes using the services of a compassionate counselor or therapist can help you get to the deeper, unconscious places within you so that you will be able to see clearly that all your defense mechanisms have been motivated by love. Love holds you the way you believe you need to be held— maybe armored, maybe swaddled or maybe even caged. With compassion, correct the mistaken beliefs that have created the need for your defenses. When the inside of your heart—the home of yourspirit self—and the beliefs in your head are no longer in conflict, health and peace will not only be yoursthey will heal your world as well. As we let go of ourself-blame and the fear that accompanies it, we begin to believe in our innocence, and that belief transforms and reverberates within us as the emotion of peace.

When we arrive at our heart’s center, we have removed the power of self-blaming beliefs, and we are able to act with kindness, love, caring, patience and peace. We come to a place of acceptance as eloquently described by the wise mystic philosopher Jalal ad-Dfn Muhammad Rumf in his poem ―The Guest House.