By Rita Desnoyers-Garcia
We all say that we want peace on this planet. And most of us are sincere in this regard, but why is it so out of our reach? Activists with whom I have spoken ponder, if not struggle with, this question and still reach outside themselves for the answers. We need different systems of governments, more equal distribution of resources, more long-term vision, more humane thinking. All of this is part of the answer,but the bigger solution is missed.
In order to have world peace, we need to look inside ourselves, each one of us, and uncover our inner peace. If each of us took the time to stop acting and doing and searching from the outside, we could focus even for a few moments on the inside. Most of us are terrified to do just that. In my opinion, and I am not alone on this one, it is because we are experiencing everything but peace inside.
The mainstream has been exposed to meditation and yoga. Even mindfulness in each moment is getting popular. There is a growing minority of people who are practicing these avenues to our inner Life, but the vast majority are not. There is a reason why I hear from so many mothers who are consciously on a spiritual journey, but procrastinate with being still. It is a painful reminder of how anxious and crazy they feel. The good news is that even if they say that they are anxious or even crazy or enraged, but it is really how they feel, not who they are.
This avoidance to feeling the pain of our minds causes us to keep moving, keep busy, keep doing. It is the hope that by doing more, thinking more, or acquiring more, we will feel better. Or in a deeper sense, we will be better. We will feel that we are enough, because all this anxiety usually has to do with the belief that we need to do more to be enough. Of course, this never happens. We have temporary victories and rest, but then we are back in the salt mines- doing, doing, doing, worrying, worrying, worrying.
The truth is that we are enough. Each one of us is enough, is peace, is love, is abundance. However, we forget how to access that truth. We can understand it intellectually, but until we experience it, it does not mean much.
So, where is all the peace and how do we get to it? There are a lot of ways. Being still is a big one. Yes, you will feel anxiety at times, if not all the time. Be still anyway- avoiding it will not make it go away. Experiencing the depth of it. Observing it is a powerful way to separate yourself from the feeling. You are having a feeling. You are not the feeling. That bears repeating. You are not the feeling. It will take time, probably more than you would like, but with time and practice and tenacious observation, the feeling will lose power over you. Guided meditations are also a great way to start the meditation process- they are tools to help you become relaxed and visualize states of being that you want to experience more often. I use my own with the mothers with whom I work, but you can find guided meditations, often for free, on line.
Yoga is a wonderful way to be meditative, relax and strengthen the body at the same time. Being in the moment or in the NOW, as Eckhart Tolle describes in The Power of Now, is an incredible practice that you can incorporate throughout your whole day. Take a task that you do regularly, and do not hate. Instead of doing it to get it done and while letting your mind run it rants, be totally in the moment with the task. If you are washing dishes, be focused on that and everything that goes with it. Experience the water on your hands. Is it warm or cold? Observe how you scrub the dish, rinse the glass, use a cloth. Feel all the sensations of the task. That, in itself, is a meditation.
As you practice and observe, you see the anxiety and start to see it for what is really is. It is a feeling you have developed over time because you have swallowed the belief that you are not enough. Then you begin to question this belief and separate yourself from it. Eventually you will create new beliefs that are truer to who you really are. Peace, love, abundance and so much more.