Peace, Love, and Happiness - Part 1

Peace, Love, and Happiness. It’s something everyone will say that they want in their life. I bet that even YOU would say that. Of course! Who wouldn’t? What’s the other alternative? Chaos, Hate, and Misery? Oh yeah. That’s something I’m in line for to have in my life. So, if everyone wants it, why is there such an incredible lack of those things in just about everyone’s life? Stop for a second and think about your own life. Really think about it and be completely honest with yourself. You’re just thinking about it. Now tell me…is your life full of peace, love, and happiness? Or are you like most people, and you want a whole lot more, or even just a little bit to offset all the rest?

So, let’s talk about it…one facet at a time. 

I will submit to you that the opposite of peace is chaos. You don’t have to agree…just walk with me for a bit. Chaos is actually present in life naturally. In fact, at times, it is a very necessary part of nature. But that doesn’t mean that it’s exactly good for a person’s life. See, the biggest thing that comes along with chaos is uncertainty. It’s the very nature of chaos. And in people, uncertainty brings rather large loads of stress. I don’t know very many people that are able to deal well will large loads of stress. Stress, in small measures, is a good thing. Science has shown that stress in large levels can actually affect a person’s health and well-being. It becomes a nasty spiral in the wrong direction.

So, if the opposite of peace is chaos…what is peace then? Wow. I think I just set myself a very difficult challenge here. Peace, I think, is different for everyone. Ha! I took the cop out…sue me.  For me, peace is a matter of being in harmony with my own life. OK. OK. That sounds like some Zen bullshit. But that’s how I look at it. My life has a certain rhythm and I have figured it out. It’s not about a schedule, just ask anyone that knows me, and it’s not about my life being organized, again anyone that knows me will blow that up. My peace comes from having figured me out. I never used to have a lot of peace in my life, but I realized that I really didn’t know much about me. Sure, I knew my favorite color, my favorite drink, my favorite way to have sex. But I didn’t really know much about the deeper part of me.

It became something that bothered me, so I started digging. What was it that made me truly happy? What was really important to me? Why couldn’t I find the peace I wanted in my life?

Want to know something really weird? When I started to answer those deep questions about me, I started to see why I wasn’t at peace. I wasn’t living in harmony with my own life. So, I started out small; little things that I could easily change. And as I started getting more in line with the rhythm of my life, I started finding a little more peace. By that time, when I felt that little bit of peace, I WANTED MORE! It became like a drug. I found that some of the things that were causing chaos in my life, started becoming smaller and smaller and finally, they were gone. I was sleeping better, feeling better, laughing more, and just enjoying life so much more than I had in so many years.

So, maybe peace is partly living in harmony with your own life…and maybe it’s partly accepting yourself and actually living your life in harmony with yourself?

Whatever your own personal definition of peace is, I KNOW it is something worth working towards. I can’t tell you how to find your own peace. If I could, I’d be R-I-C-H! But, I’m always willing to help out a fellow traveler. 

I do hope to see you on the road to peace. It’s a great journey, at least mine has been.