Where are you in your life right now?
Look around you. Are you sitting at your desk at a job that you love? Are you the parent of little children who love and respect you… who make you laugh and smile? Do you have the funds to do what you want when you want it?
No?
Maybe…
I think that most of the pain and suffering that goes on in the world is because we are all looking at what we don’t have, or what we are living that we don’t want.
There’s a lot of attention right now sweeping the globe about mindfulness, about awareness, and consciousness. This is a wonderful thing because it is literally the first step to finding internal peace.
We’ve all heard the phrase that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right? It’s true. If you can pinpoint what you feel in your life, no matter what kind of emotion it is you can start shifting the momentum.
A lot of us are on autopilot. A lot of us are confused, doing what we think we should, not even paying attention anymore to the fact that we don’t feel great. And how we feel is the basis for everything that is happening in our life.
The best way to begin feeling better is by making peace with the fact that we may not feel great right now. Take a look around, again. Make peace with your job. Make peace with your house. Make peace with your kids. Make peace with your partner. Just look at the things that are surrounding you and acknowledge them. Even if you’re fighting with your lover, make peace with that. It’s happening, and it’s happening for a reason. Make peace with your bank account. Acknowledge that you want more funds in there, acknowledge that maybe some of your bills are paid late, but they are all paid eventually!
When we can look around at our life and see what is in it, when we can truly see the potential and realize that we really are doing the best we can, we start to lighten up.
Society, and humans in general are seemingly programmed to believe that nothing is ever enough. Lack consciousness is very profound in our lives and if we feed that mindset it will run us down and control us.
But if we can look around and see what is, and appreciate what is, make peace with it, then we start to radiate that outward and our lives improve.
Last year I started working a part time job around the Holidays at a department store. It was really easy for me to get the job, and a big part of me felt like I was “above” this type of work. I had worked in Corporate America doing really good work for almost 8 years, I had my own Life Coaching practice, I had certifications and skills that I thought would be better in another field. Honestly, I was insulted that I had to lower myself to a job like this, working with 17 year old kids folding shirts and getting paid minimum wage.
I was very close to quitting the job. I was really at odds with it and created such a big monster in my head about what I had gotten into. Then one day I sat down and began asking myself why I had applied for the job in the first place. I asked myself if there was anything good about the job. The people I worked with were very nice, very accepting. I was good at the work because I had worked for the same company when I was in my teenage years. I had some time to myself… I would drive into work alone and could hear myself think. I would work by myself during my shift and began playing with my thoughts. I began repeating affirmations in my head.
After just a few days I began to really enjoy my job. I realized that this job was a gift to me. It was time for myself, it was paid, it was something I was good at and it was something that was allowing me to rewire my thinking. I stayed working for several months until we began to get ready for our move.
What I learned about this experience was that I had the opportunity to make peace with my situation. I was railing against something I had gotten myself into. I was telling myself all the reasons it was a bad idea, listening to my ego complaining, comparing myself and really feeling bad about what I was thinking. It was when I finally boiled down what I was living, and why I had done what I did that I was able to see the blessing in this situation. I made peace with it.
Why does anyone want what they want? Because they think it will make them feel better. It’s not ever a fluke that we are living the lives we’re living. We’re living them because they are the product of our conscious choices and decisions. We think that something has gone wrong, that we screwed up, that something was done to us. The Universe doesn’t work that way though. It never gives you something that you can’t handle, and it never gives you something that you aren’t currently feeling.
The best thing we can ever do is to surrender to the lives we created and appreciate what is around us. There is SO MUCH GOOD around us. When we stop counting the injustices we begin to see all the beauty and the more we look at THAT, the more it is amplified. Look around you and make peace with your creation. Look at the “imperfections” and ask what you can learn from them. Appreciate it all, and know that the unwanted is summoning the wanted. You have a life, and it’s a good one if you decide it is. Be appreciative of the fact that every minute is an opportunity to make peace with where you are.
Natural Peace Living 