I could choose peace.

I discovered the Spring edition of a local magazine called the Mosaic which focuses on mind, body, spirit, health and wisdom. An article called “I could choose peace” by Carmen Jubinville, a life coach, caught my eye and I think deserves sharing. The following is an adaptation of this article.

Inner peach is a big priority for many people, especially women. Each person has different dilemmas or issues to work on yet the main goal is to reach a place within ones self to feel content and satisfied. If we want to experience long lasting inner peach we simply need to master the art of choosing it. When we make peace our #1 priority, we then become willing to change our perspectives when faced with adversity.

Inner peace is something we look for and yet is inside of us already. Just like a light switch we only need to turn it on. Every day life offers us opportunities to choose peace; it offers us situations where all we need to do is turn on our peach switch. When we recognize those opportunities, that is when we can start practicing. But like anything, when we begin to practice something new we will need some conviction.

We need conviction because we don’t necessarily need to practice choosing peace when life is flowing with ease and grace. We need to dig in our heels with conviction and practice choosing peace when life is throwing us lemons and nothing seems to be going our way.

It is during these challenging times when conviction is paramount. It may seem obvious that we should choose peace over struggle and yet surprisingly enough we actually choose struggle over peace much more often than we realize.

For instance, if faced with a confrontation we naturally want to defend ourselves and yet what we don’t realize is that the moment we begin to defend ourselves we are choosing struggle. We justify our choice to choose struggle because we believe that we have to defend ourselves otherwise people will walk all over us or they will hold some sort of opinion or judgment about us.

In this instance, to choose peace instead of defending ourselves may feel overly challenging and that is why conviction is key. We have to want peace more than we want to defend ourselves.

A course in Miracles teaches us: “I have invented the world I see.” It then goes on the teach that “There is another way of looking at the world.” And finally, in teaches that “I could see peace instead of this.”

It is these challenging moments when the willingness to shift our perspective will determine whether or not we have chosen peace or struggle. It is clearly a choice and it is a choice only you can make.

Are you willing to see things differently? Are you willing to see peace instead?

In this particular instance, imagine if you didn’t take the confrontation personally. Imagine if you let go of the fear that someone was attacking you or judging you harshly. Imagine if you acknowledged the confrontation but chose to release it instead of participating in it.

These shifts in perspective would completely change the outcome of the confrontation. There can be no war if you refuse to fight. This may seem impossible and yet it is completely within your reach with practice and diligence.

It has been my experience that there would be little struggle in life if we refuse to feed certain urges, thoughts and emotions. This doesn’t mean we do not have boundaries. This only means that we are very much aware of our choices.

We begin to determine what or who is worthy of disturbing our inner peace in time we notice that for the most part, nothing or nobody qualifies.