|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Universe Within by Gwen Randall-Young
One of the most blissful states I can imagine is when we have peace of mind. While peace of mind can be affected by external circumstances, these are not determining factors. Peace of mind is something we can bring to ourselves, regardless of our circumstances.
Too often life is spent striving to arrange and rearrange aspects of our lives in the hope that one day we will have everything in its place, and then we will be able to relax and enjoy. Yet, on any given day, if we can step out of the stream of consciousness, which often carries us along like hapless swimmers in the grip of an undertow, and we look around, there is peace around us.
Consider a sunbeam falling silently across the floor, a cat quietly napping, a flower blooming just because or clouds floating gently across the sky. If we really focus on those things, we can feel an infusion of peaceful energy. Like a pianist playing to the regular beat of the metronome, we can align ourselves to anything that is calming and takes us momentarily away from the more staccato rhythm of our busy minds. When we do that, there is a part of our consciousness that feels instantly ‘at home’.
There is a familiarity akin to the experience of hearing an old melody, and spontaneously remembering the words. It is like something we have always known - cannot imagine ever forgetting. It is a knowing inherent in our being. Perhaps we felt it floating in the womb with the soothing pulse of our mother’s heart vibrating though us. Or maybe we had that experience while we were being held and fed - totally fulfilled and trusting. It could have been awakening from a nap in the familiar surroundings of our crib, and quietly watching the patch of sunlight that magically appeared on the wall.
With each passing year, as we grew and moved farther out into the world, we relinquished that sense of trust and safety, because the world did not always reaffirm these - or, at least, our emotions did not seem to. Rather than just ‘being’, and allowing delight to surprise us, like a beautiful butterfly suddenly flitting across our path, we began to think. We remembered those wonderful, comforting times, and began to crave them. We remembered the unpleasant experiences, and began to think about how to avoid them.
In the process of thinking about the past and worrying about the future, we began to miss the present. Minutes, adding up into hours and days slipped away this way. As we approach middle age, we develop the capacity to miss even more present moments, because in addition to wishing for more good times and trying to avoid bad times, we can now spend time evaluating our lives. We can compare where we are in our lives to where we think we should be, or to where others are. This can amplify our concerns about the past and the future. What we have now is an ever-expanding thought spiral carrying us deeper into the well of our own psyches, and away from the peaceful light-of-day calm outside.
Interestingly, peace of mind often comes from shutting it off! That is why meditation can be so beneficial. We can, however, use the mind to actively enhance peace of mind.
By directing our focus to the natural world, to beautiful art or music, or to counting our blessings, we can quiet a restless mind. Disciplining the mind to accept change and loss as natural aspects of our world and our life journey, and releasing attachment, allow us to flow with life, surrendering struggle and resistance to what is.
Reclaiming that childlike sense of joy and wonder in the simple things, and choosing to trust - not that all will be okay, but that we will be okay, helps to bring us back to a more peaceful way of being - a way of just being. If we think in terms of personifying peace, and do things to accentuate that - make up our minds to do that - then we have brought peace to our mind - made peace with our minds, created peace of mind.
Gwen Randall-Young is a psychotherapist and author of Dancing Soul: The Voice of Spirit Evolving. She has also written Echoes Through Time: A Message of Healing for Men, Baby Soul: A Blessing of Spirit, and produced audiocassettes entitled, After Recess: A Calming Meditation for the Elementary School Classroom, Healing the Past: A Meditation for Wholeness, and A World of Kindness: Experiencing Personal and Global Harmony gwendall@shaw.ca
 Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
