Peace! just hearing the word itself sends out incredible much-needed vibrations around and within us. All creation, all of humanity need peace, but how can one attain this noble virtue which can make our lives so much more enjoyable and fulfilling?
Peace is a calm state of being. It is an attitude and culture one can actively cultivate. However, it does not automatically exist. The moment people wake up, a rush of thoughts plunging them into worry and restlessness often attacks them. Just checking our phones and switching on the television introduces us to the reality of the hurting world we live in today. Amidst the inevitable storms of this life, how can one manage to attain peace and be grounded, not constantly being tossed about by the waves of unforeseen challenging events that await humanity every day?
Attitude of peace
In simple terms, attitude is a way of behaving, feeling, or acting towards a particular person or situation. When undeveloped and immature, the usual way of reacting towards our surroundings is often spontaneous or impulsive. Whenever anyone wrongs you or things don't go as expected, it's often easy to immediately respond negatively with feelings of resentment, bitterness, anger, frustration, and impatience. This is usually the norm when an individual has not trained one's mind to be mindfully responsive rather than instinctively reactive. Constantly reacting to things that happen to you on a day-to-day basis in that untrained way can most certainly lead one to have a heavy burden to carry all the time, no matter where you go.
We are what we think, say, and do
To successfully adapt to our environment and overcome any setbacks that come our way, it is essential to consciously cultivate an attitude of peace. This means one must start mindfully training themselves to develop a peaceful way of thinking, acting, and speaking. If you had gotten used to the attitude of cultivating the ABC mindset, then that becomes who you become. ABC mindset stands for Accusing Blaming and Complaining. Our repeated thoughts, actions, and words form our habits and, ultimately, our character. Hence it is possible to unlearn negative reactive behavioral patterns and reprogram ourselves to being a peaceful person by cultivating thoughts, actions, and words that show an attitude of peace. Actively start practicing a culture of peace in how you behave to enjoy the fruit of peace. Practice certainly makes perfect.
Be open-minded to new or different perspectives
Albert Einstein once said, "There are only two ways to live your life; one is as though nothing is a miracle and the other is as though everything is." Decoding everything that happens to you in a negative light robs you of the much-needed peace you could be cultivating and enjoying with others in your sphere of influence. Focus on the positive.
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness- Chinese Proverb
Most people often urge to point out the shortcomings and faults in a system, person, or situation. But, unfortunately, this often leads to tension, misunderstanding, fights, wrong perceptions, and unintended hurt. Before you know it, the situation would have escalated from bad to worse. Hence to introduce any suggested ways of handling things more fruitfully, it is vital to learn to cultivate peace in dealing with those situations.
Instead of exposing and calling out shortcomings, a better approach to try first is usually becoming the change you want to see. Then, by showing a good example of how things should be without making others feel demeaned for not doing it right, you can peacefully introduce positive change, which will be gratefully accepted. However, when you try to change things from a place of wrath, frustration, and anger, this closes people's hearts from cooperating willingly and peacefully with you. Which in turn often leads to more harmful and strained relations. Therefore, developing an attitude of peace is key to progress.
Acknowledge the other person's reality.
Misunderstandings, strife, and broken relationships often prevail when we resist acknowledging and respecting other people's perspectives which differ from our own. Therefore, learning to communicate peacefully through positive dialogue to settle disputes or differences is key to attaining peaceful co-existence with others and developing authentic, relaxed, friendly relations. Without mindfully cultivating this attitude of peace, it is almost impossible to have peace.
Calm Morning
One of the most beautiful things to witness every day is the gift of waking up to a new day. Waking up to hearing the peaceful, calming songs of happy birds always carefree and ready to take on the world is empowering. Such a calm morning state that nature presents is a blessing we ought to learn to behold and appreciate.
Calm morning routine
Mornings routines are very important. How they unfold often sets the tone for how the rest of our day will most likely turn out. We are more productive when we are calm, our environment is well organized, and our thoughts are also organized. Most chaotic mornings are often due to lack of planning the night before, sleeping too late, waking up to a messy environment, waking up late. Hence to cultivate an attitude of peace and calm in the morning, good habits must be practiced to get there. These include having a good rest, not going to bed before resolving any previous conflicts, starting your day with prayer, meditation, and a glass of room temperature water before eating anything, to name a few. Peace is possible. All we need to do is be the change we want to see.
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