“Inner peace creates outer peace”

by Connie Pierce

I love getting ideas and have to thank FB for this one posted by a friend.  It speaks to what I believe.

If we want any changes to our life be it our bodies, our homes, our jobs, our families, etc., we must start with our thinking.  To have a good expression of all that we hold dear, we have to start with our thinking.

Self-worth and self-value are achieved through self-evaluation.  And the evaluation isn’t about tearing yourself down to build yourself up.  I think it is starting from the standpoint of love and appreciation for who you are right NOW.  We have a tendency to start from the lowest instead of the highest.  And we can find ourselves digging and digging looking for what is wrong instead of building on what is right.

I have learned that this work is continuous.  We don’t do it once and think we are through.  It really requires a daily even hourly commitment to stay on the right track with who we are.  We need to put on our blinders and not look at what others are doing to judge ourselves.  This is individual and regardless of who is around you, you are unique and need to be valued accordingly.

I learned this lesson once again last weekend.  I was with some relatives I haven’t been around in recent years.  It was humbling because of the success and personal achievements I witnessed.  I left feeling like my life was a failure in many ways.  Now intellectually I know this is wrong.  But I couldn’t get my peace about this until I addressed my thinking.  My world is my consciousness of it (this is how I believe); yet I certainly wasn’t living that last weekend.  I felt horrible for thinking this way and then felt horrible for mistakes I had made.  I was with my family to honor my aunt who had just passed.  It really was a special time but when I left to return home the clouds of all this negative thinking tried to take over.

We went through rain and fog to get there and then hit severe wind storms coming home.  It felt like the weather was a reflection of my thinking – a complete mess!  So how did I pull myself up and out?  First of all I had to honestly look at the situation from a factual basis and not emotionally.  I realized that my emotions were completely unreliable.  I had so wanted to say goodbye to my aunt but that didn’t come to pass and my sadness over her passing was coloring everything.

When things are upsetting to me I turn inward and start looking at myself in a negative way.  At least I am recognizing it and moving more quickly to change my thinking.  You see, we really are responsible for our thoughts.  Can anyone else change my behavior?  I don’t think so. So when I start thinking of myself as a victim (of me or others) that sends a shock wave through me jolting me back where I need to be mentally.

First of all I believe we all have a Creator and that Creator didn’t create me less than or more than…I believe we are all created equal but unique.  It always goes back to treasuring our uniqueness.

So once again I sat down and started listing all my qualities and things I have achieved over the years.  It helped me to acknowledge my gratitude to God first of all and then for my family, especially my aunt, and me.  I thought about her example and what she would be saying to me if she knew what I was thinking and that helped.  I recalled an article I wrote about one of her sayings, “I have one body and I want to own it” and did some mental editing to “I have one life and I choose to own it.”  Stop looking at others and own what is yours. In other words, I needed to own – acknowledge and appreciate – my life and what I am doing that is good.  Inner peace reigned again!  And outwardly I found I was able to handle some other issues with more grace and assurance.

We are all valuable and our inner peace will help us achieve more outer peace.  Try it!  Let me know how you are doing.

We are all works in progress.