Hi everyone, welcome back! Hope you guys are having an awesome summer! Four weeks ago I examined our belief about separation and tried to better understand if we really are separate human beings sharing space on planet Earth or if we are all pretty much the same just on different journeys. This week, since we continue to experience more mass shootings here in the US, I would like to examine the importance of whatever is happening around us and how the process of creating peace for ourselves is affected by these events.
Belief: There is so much chaos and fear in this world around me. How do I even begin to find peace in my own world when the world around me is in chaos?
In the last few years as I have been gaining a deeper understanding of how human mind works and as I continue to get in touch with my own wisdom and am actually being able to access it maybe for a few seconds in a day, there is one common theme that pops up every now and then which is that most people blame the state of their peace of mind and hearts on the state of this world. But what I have come to understand is that no matter how good or bad the state of the world around you is, if you are not directly impacted by it, it cannot affect your peace of mind. Additionally, even if you are directly impacted by it, your own wisdom, if you ever listen to it, will tell you that you will always be okay no matter what the situation. But honestly, it’s not easy to believe in the latter because most of us are hardly in touch with our own selves other than the physical and therefore our own wisdom. So, for this week’s conversation, let’s just talk about the former scenario which in fact is true for a lot of us since we are merely observers of the events that unfold around us.
Anybody who thinks that they are unable to create peace inside themselves because there is so much killings and shootings and crazy things happening all around them; can you honestly answer one question. Can you honestly answer yes or no if for e.g., the violent and senseless shootings that happen around us stopped completely and let’s say the city that you live in becomes very peaceful as a result; do you really think you will be able to create more peace for yourself just because your city has now transformed into a peaceful place? I am not sure how you guys would answer this question but for me personally, based on how my mind works, I don’t think it will be possible to create more peace just because of the fact that my city has now transformed. And the reason it won’t be possible for me to create more peace within myself even though things have become more positive around me is because as a human being I am relying on my mind to create this peace for me. And I rely on my mind because that is what does the thinking for me. And one doesn’t need to be very wise to know that when humans think positive thoughts, it in turn creates positive emotions within us. And when this thinking is negative, it results in negative emotions. And I don’t think I am totally off-track as I say that this is actually true for majority of humans on this planet. But you see folks, when we rely on our minds to create the peace for us, what we are really trying to do is to control our surroundings so that they create positive thoughts for us and in turn create positive emotions which will make us feel good and this in turn will create a peaceful feeling inside of us.
Now you may think what is wrong with this way of creating peace and I absolutely don’t disagree that one of the ways to create peace within ourselves is by thinking positive thoughts, but like I just pointed out above, by doing this we actually try to control our situations and surroundings and as a result our thinking! But, let me ask you this – how many of you have ever succeeded in controlling either your situations or your surroundings or even your thoughts? If you have then you probably won’t even be reading this blog right now! Let me tell you one fascinating thing about human mind which you may have already realized through living your own life – A human mind is an amazing creation but sadly a creation which has a tendency to gravitate towards the negative, to get easily pulled into the fear and judgement. And because this is the nature human mind, no matter how peaceful your neighborhood/city becomes (as we looked at in the above example), your mind will always find another negative thought to indulge in, another negative experience to harp upon, another shooting or killing outside of your city or country to feel anxious about. And that’s the simple truth! And this is the very reason why trying to create peace through our minds doesn’t really work in the long term!
So, how does one even begin to create peace without the support of positive thinking? Well, this is what I have been doing in my own life. I have made a conscious decision to stop watching the news which I believe is the biggest source of fear since it’s always full of bad things and events that are happening all around us. Although we have no control over these things/events, yet, when you watch the news or listen to it or read it, what happens in your own mind is it starts to imagine the same scenario happening in our own lives although that may be farthest from the truth. We start to believe that something that we just watched on news can actually happen in our own lives. For e.g., a piece of news about mass shootings will make fear travel so far down your nerves that you may start to believe that it may actually come true in your own life. That may become reality for some people but for most of us that is not what will kill us. Instead our fearful thinking about it can cause us more harm because our judgement will be impaired and because our judgement will be compromised, our actions will be compromised. Also, this is the kind of thinking that creates stress, anxiety and depression in humans. And you probably don’t even have to go outside your home to find people plagued with stress and anxiety and depression. And when your mind in not busy creating fearful thoughts as a result of all the fearful information its receiving, you can redirect that space/time and instead start to pay attention on the things you like about yourself, your life, your relationships and your family and friends. Focusing on these things is what creates those warm and fuzzy feelings which create peace within us…and yes, meditation can always help! Give it a try 🙂
And as always, feel free to leave a comment, if you feel like leaving one. And until next Friday, live life 🙂
