Everything will be ok only as soon as we decide we are ok with everything and the quickest way to get there my lovelies is through gratitude & appreciation. Yes my friends, finding peace & joy is an inside job. Grateful thinking fosters peace and joy as it settles the mind into the good vs. getting stuck in the whirlwind of what’s bad or missing.
Here’s the great news: IT IS HUMANLY AND MENTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE GRATEFUL & MAD /SAD /DEPRESSED IN THE SAME MOMENT. These two states cannot coexist in the human brain, so the more energy we put into being in a state of gratitude the less energy or time we have left to spend in a negative state of mind. Yes, our daily energy comes in limited supply so we need to be wise & selective with where we spend it. I’m not advocating that we stuff our negative feelings to the bottom, we have to let them move through us, but if it is peace we’re looking for we need to promise ourselves that our own inner peace should always come first…the rest just follows. Here are a few steps we can take towards achieving inner peace:
1. Shift our mindset. A common mindset I’ve encountered with clients is one where instead of appreciating the way things are right now, they believe they’ll be at peace only if external conditions were met. Instead of relying on these outside factors, we must learn to turn inward and relinquish control of what’s happening on the outside. I’ll cover more of the “how to” in step 3.
2. Recognize that our inner peace is highly dependent on this one thing—our level of awareness of our perceiving, thinking & doing. We can’t let the weakest part of us run our life. Between our perceiving, thinking & reacting there is a space in which we can decide to maintain peace or to create conflict. There is so much power in this space and we always have two choices: we keep that power to ourselves or we give it away. Our choice. Always our choice! Only one of the choices maintains our inner peace.
3. Give up expectations of how others behave towards us and replace them with expectations for ourselves. Another mindshift is necessary here…the shift from self serving intentions to self serving actions that we can take ourselves. This also requires us to take a leap of faith and believe in the law of vibration/attraction as much as we believe in gravity. We can’t see it but we know it exists. In short, the law is based on the principle that we attract what matches our energy vibration. This topic is so vast there are tones of references available if you want to learn more. In it’s simplest form it looks like this: you want love, give love; you want affection be soft & affectionate; you want peace, be peaceful; you want social media likes, like more social media posts…ok, that one was silly but you get the idea. It’s amazing how quickly things shift in our favor when we make these changes ourselves.
4. Give our peace & joy muscles a daily workout and make it a habit. We practice gratitude, positivity & mindfulness daily. We are intentional about spreading calm loving vibes through compassion, love & kindnes when interacting with others. For example, gratitude can become a daily practice by waking up every morning and writing down or saying out loud what we’re feeling grateful for. Not just around Thanksgiving either, but daily. ?
5. Think of gratitude as the filter through which we run our perceptions & thoughts throughout the day. For example, when we’re outdoors we can direct our thoughts to and be grateful for the peace, beauty and magical symmetry of all that surrounds us. Observe the perfection that exists in nature, a perfection we can’t fully comprehend, what comes out of this filter of gratitude is peace, joy & awe. When in the midst of suffering we can be grateful for the lessons we are learning. When at work we can be grateful for the pay & benefits of having a job. When in our homes we can be grateful for having shelter. At a minimum, in every single moment we can be grateful for our breath and our ticking heart, because after all…without that we’d have nothing.
In closing, the quicker we begin our flow of gratitude the quicker the negativity manufactured in our minds dissapears. Making gratitude a practice in our daily outlook on life will begin a wonderful journey to a peaceful, vibrant & joyous life.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments or answer any questions you may have. Have a wonderful weekend “joy warriors”! Much love & light to all! – Dee, ?
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