I am coming to realize, more and more, that nothing in life is as important as deep inner peace. Everything in our lives is seen through the filter of our state of mind, and if fear, the antithesis to peace and love, has been allowed to creep in (or bulldoze its way in!), then it crowds out the positive emotions, stunting them and crushing their growth. It is easy to blame this mental/emotional phenomenon on outer circumstances. Many people are facing huge challenges at present -- yet the outer fear-inducing specters cannot and do not define who we are -- unless we allow them to do so. It seems to me that keeping your inner peace and serenity is only gained by taking your power back from fear (a helpful acronym to defuse the power of fear - False Evidence Appearing Real) and consciously making a choice as to how you react to the outer circumstance.
I am reminded of a wonderful lesson taught by the beloved minister and founder of Unity of Naples Church, Jack D. Kern, in which there was a series of events befalling a man and each one, as presented, seemed to be "bad", yet when the next event happened, it reversed the preceding one, thus turning into a "good" thing, and vice versa. I cannot recall all the details of the story, but to give you an idea it went something like this: A man was out tending his farm when a neighbor came by to exchange news and, asking after the farmer's family, he was told that his son had gotten a beautiful, wild stallion. The neighbor said, "Oh, that's good". The farmer then replied, "No, that's bad, because my son broke his leg when thrown from the horse while trying to tame it". The neighbor exclaimed, "Oh, that's bad"! To which the farmer said, "No, that was actually good, because my son was exempted from going to war because of the broken leg". The story continues in this fashion, and you get the gist...
The moral of the story is that things are not what they appear, and the only thing we can truly control is how we "judge" what happens and react to it.
One of the very best tools to train our minds to access inner peace and to slow down the perception of time rushing by at a frantic pace, is meditation. I have explored various kinds of meditation techniques over the years and I find benefit in each of them. The key is finding one that you can and will actually do, daily. There has been a great deal of research done over the years on the multiple benefits of meditation -- not only are there proven and documented health benefits (stress reduction, lowering of blood pressure, faster healing time), but also there are great mental and emotional benefits (emotional centering, prevention or improvement of depression -- often out-performing pharmaceuticals and with no side effects). Perhaps the greatest benefit of learning to meditate is that it gives you a sense of your own power, lets you take a step back from knee-jerk, habitual reactions and actively choose your way of responding to life's adventures and challenges. It allows you to be less "judgmental" and more in the moment, so you can experience more of life's richness and beauty more directly and deeply.
If you are curious about meditation and have never tried it, you might be daunted by all the various techniques and mystique about it, but it is really very simple. As Rev. Jack Kern used to teach in his short course in meditation, "Sit down and shut up" -- is all you need to know -- the basics. Add to that just observing your breath for five minutes, and there you are -- meditating!
If you want to try out a more structured, time-tested, well researched approach, I recommend the books and CDs of Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. (see reference in Wikipedia) founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is the creator of the eight-week course called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), taught since 1979, it is the most well-known and studied clinical meditation program in the world. His books and meditation practices on CD are available at his website (click his name above) or at the usual outlets online such as Amazon (link below).
Our world is so sorely in need of peace, both inner and outer, and it would indeed alleviate so much suffering, our own and others', if we find and use practices that foster inner peace & serenity. Happy exploring of your own inner space!
I am reminded of a wonderful lesson taught by the beloved minister and founder of Unity of Naples Church, Jack D. Kern, in which there was a series of events befalling a man and each one, as presented, seemed to be "bad", yet when the next event happened, it reversed the preceding one, thus turning into a "good" thing, and vice versa. I cannot recall all the details of the story, but to give you an idea it went something like this: A man was out tending his farm when a neighbor came by to exchange news and, asking after the farmer's family, he was told that his son had gotten a beautiful, wild stallion. The neighbor said, "Oh, that's good". The farmer then replied, "No, that's bad, because my son broke his leg when thrown from the horse while trying to tame it". The neighbor exclaimed, "Oh, that's bad"! To which the farmer said, "No, that was actually good, because my son was exempted from going to war because of the broken leg". The story continues in this fashion, and you get the gist...
The moral of the story is that things are not what they appear, and the only thing we can truly control is how we "judge" what happens and react to it.
One of the very best tools to train our minds to access inner peace and to slow down the perception of time rushing by at a frantic pace, is meditation. I have explored various kinds of meditation techniques over the years and I find benefit in each of them. The key is finding one that you can and will actually do, daily. There has been a great deal of research done over the years on the multiple benefits of meditation -- not only are there proven and documented health benefits (stress reduction, lowering of blood pressure, faster healing time), but also there are great mental and emotional benefits (emotional centering, prevention or improvement of depression -- often out-performing pharmaceuticals and with no side effects). Perhaps the greatest benefit of learning to meditate is that it gives you a sense of your own power, lets you take a step back from knee-jerk, habitual reactions and actively choose your way of responding to life's adventures and challenges. It allows you to be less "judgmental" and more in the moment, so you can experience more of life's richness and beauty more directly and deeply.
If you are curious about meditation and have never tried it, you might be daunted by all the various techniques and mystique about it, but it is really very simple. As Rev. Jack Kern used to teach in his short course in meditation, "Sit down and shut up" -- is all you need to know -- the basics. Add to that just observing your breath for five minutes, and there you are -- meditating!
If you want to try out a more structured, time-tested, well researched approach, I recommend the books and CDs of Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. (see reference in Wikipedia) founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is the creator of the eight-week course called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), taught since 1979, it is the most well-known and studied clinical meditation program in the world. His books and meditation practices on CD are available at his website (click his name above) or at the usual outlets online such as Amazon (link below).
Our world is so sorely in need of peace, both inner and outer, and it would indeed alleviate so much suffering, our own and others', if we find and use practices that foster inner peace & serenity. Happy exploring of your own inner space!
