Finding Peace

We have created a world where peace seems impossible to find and stillness an impossible dream. How can we be still when there is so much noise and so many distractions? It has been said that art reflects life. I believe the state of the world reflects the people who populate it and if only more of us could try harder to reach that stillness which lies at the centre of our being, the world would be the better for it. It will not just happen however, we have to work at it and create the conditions where we, as individuals, can be truly still.

In order to make a start, we should try to create an area in our home where peace and quiet are sacrosanct. A place that everyone in the family knows and understands is “our quiet place.” A place they will respect as such. If this is impossible because you just do not have the room, then choose a time when you know you will not be disturbed, turn the phone off, silence the doorbell and sit comfortably. Close your eyes and breathe deeply, pausing between incoming breaths and outgoing ones, do this three or four times and then resume breathing normally but listen to your breathing, become aware of its rhythm. After a minute or two you should start to feel more relaxed and enter a state similar to daydreaming. Try not to focus on thoughts that enter your mind, just allow them to pass through and continue to concentrate on your breathing.

After a little while imagine yourself moving from the room where you are, to a place where you have enjoyed being in the past; it maybe the open country, or woods, or an empty beach, or beside a stream. In your imagination, see everything clearly. Look at the colours, smell the freshness of the air, feel free and either sit there or wander along until you reach a place where you would like to sit. Sit there quietly and feel all the life around you, feel the energy coming from the trees, the earth, the stream, or the ocean. Feel yourself being energised but at the same time relaxed. Enjoy the stillness; allow it to wrap you in a warm, comforting embrace. You may find that sometimes you are joined by someone else who will help you to take the stillness deep inside and use it in your everyday life.

If you do this regularly, everyday, for around 20 minutes or so, you will find after a few weeks that the things in life that used to upset you or make you impatient and even short-tempered, no longer have the power to do so. You will also find that other people will begin to remark on the change in you. That will give you the opportunity to explain to them what you have been doing to make this happen. In that way you will be spreading the good news about the importance of and the ease with which we can be still if we are determined enough. Some of these people will try it for themselves and so it will spread until sufficient people are seeking stillness for it to affect the world and bring about a transformation in human behaviour and understanding. The noise levels will abate, people will begin walking more slowly and have time to look around them and appreciate the beauty that is everywhere but which in our haste we miss.

Logic seems to dictate that if people begin walking more slowly and stop to take in the beauty all around them, important things will not be done when they should be. This is an illusion. Nothing of importance will be adversely affected by us slowing down. Indeed the reverse will happen because fewer mistakes will be made. There is an old saying, “Haste makes waste” and it is so true. When we are rushing around, we cannot concentrate properly on what we are doing and we make big mistakes. The vast majority of people will also be happier because they begin to understand others in a way that was impossible before as well as realising they themselves are now being understood and appreciated in a new and wonderful way. I urge you to try this if you are not already doing it.