Perspective of Peace

Peace is a concept recognized around the world. Everyone tries to attain it, countries desire it, humans aspire for it, and probably every living creature prays for it.  So, why can it seem so hard to achieve at times? Peace is often defined as freedom of disturbance, or a period of harmony. But, who gets to decide when you are in your period of peace and why do people feel they have a say on how you attain it and how you live in peace?

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, NY, which is home to the largest indoor Buddha in the Western Hemisphere. Standing 37 feet tall, the incredible Buddha statue gives off an overwhelming feeling of peace that can bring you to tears. This had me thinking about the Buddha’s life. Growing up as a Prince and having everything he could ever dream of, he was unaware of the struggles of the other people living outside the palace gates.  Once he saw that not everyone experienced life with the luxury he did, he embarked on his journey to enlightenment. He experienced many practices where people had said that he could attain inner peace and enlightenment. Following the path that was true for him, it was under the Bodhi Tree where he finally experienced his awakening. He then went on to teach. Buddha experienced challenges and even had to change his course along the way, much like all of us have had to do at one point or several in our lives. It is when we find our own inner peace that we can view ourselves, others, and our surroundings differently that helps us reach our version of an awakening much like Buddha had.

Personally, I believe that we go through many awakenings and moments of enlightenment during our life time. These moments can come at any different phase of our life and can be related to health, love, career, family and so forth. When we become awakened to part of our inner purpose, we often find ourselves in a transitional period to make sure that all other areas of our life match our newly awakened selves. As part of this transition, we will seek out more peace in our lives and will do whatever we can to create a peaceful environment around us. A major part of this transition deals with reviewing relationships specifically with friends and family. It is very common that while on your spiritual path, you experience a really good relationship cleanse. You will find that friends you use to be really close with and spend time with are suddenly no longer compatible with your beliefs, or you can no longer relate to them.

Sometimes many people who are close to us, or have known us all of our lives will have a hard time accepting this new peaceful you. Remember that change is scary for most people so when you change, people around you experience change. Most of the time, our loved ones are used to us being a certain way and doing things they think we love to do. However, when those habits suddenly change they can question why and unintentionally make you doubt your choices. A few years ago, I decided to stop drinking any kind of alcohol. I had maybe less than 10 drinks a year so it wasn’t really a hard thing for me to do. But, other people, mostly friends, took my decision personally. Suddenly, people assumed I wasn’t fun to go out with in social settings anymore or they looked at me differently because of my choice. The thing was though that is was my choice, and it was something that brought peace to my life with or without the approval of others, because the only approval I needed was my own. It can be hard to hear criticism or comments but as long as you know what brings peace into your life, no one can take that away from you unless you let them.

Give this transition some time while everyone adjusts, including yourself. The relationships that you are supposed to continue and develop will deepen and your loved ones will cherish you more than they did, and vice a versa. If someone doesn’t support this part of you, simply give thanks to the universe for the opportunity to learn from them and then release yourself and that person from the relationship. This can be very difficult to do with friends and family. But, it will allow both of you to continue to learn, grown, and follow your individual paths. This is one of the best gifts you can give to someone you care about.

From a different perspective, once you experience enlightenment it can be challenging to see others not living a lifestyle of personal peace. It is important to remember that peace is attained differently for different people and we all experience it at different times in our life. Something you may have done in your life that brought you more peace will not be what a friend or loved one needs to do in their life. Just the way that we expect someone not to judge us for our choices, we cannot judge someone for something they decide to continue to do in their own lives. It is not your burden to carry. We may want to see the ones we care about living the very best lives they can and have them experience the joy that peace has brought us, but in this moment in time they are where they are supposed to be and living the best life they can for today. Once you can shift your perspective of peace, you may just find that you experience more freedom from disturbances and more periods of harmony than you originally thought.

Once that peace is attained, it is staying in that peace, and living in peace that then becomes a new journey we all must embark upon. “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” – Buddha

Stay Inspired by the Divine

Stacey

© 2015 Elysian Life Design. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express or written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Elysian Life Design with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Dear Ego, SHHHHHHHHHH

 “The Ego is not who you really are. The ego is your self-image; it is your social mask; it is the role you are playing. Your social mask thrives on approval. It wants control, and it is sustained by power, because it lives in fear.” – Deepak Chopra

You know that little voice in our head, that says all the things like; “I am not worthy of this love,” “I look fat,” “I am ugly,” “I am not good enough,” “I will never reach my dreams,” “I am too old to try something new” and all those other horrible thoughts that fill our head. This is the ego at work! This little voice can spend day after day after day keeping us in this lower energy space. Making us believe that we are all the things it says. Have you ever had a disagreement with a friend, and for days it is all you can think about. You replay the conversation over and over and over again. You have fake fights with them in your head, and act out what you would say and what they would say and think about it all day long. Think about how many times you have done this… Now think about how many hours you spent feeding your ego with all that negative energy. I do not say this to scare you or frustrate you. But, think of all the better things you could be doing with you time instead of fighting, really, with yourself instead of encouraging yourself.

Whether spiritual or not, everyone struggles with their ego. There are many sayings for what the ego means, but my favorite is “Edging God Out”.  When you spend all day engaging in your ego and what you can’t do and what others think about you, you are not focused on God and what He meant for you to do that day. Each day you have on Earth is for a reason, and it is not so you can worry, or live in fear. Each day when you wake up, before you even get out of bed, set your intention for the day. Ask God to let you live that day the way that He intended for you. Even the most spiritually enlightened people struggle with ego on a daily basis (with the exception of a few like the Dalai Lama for example), so don’t be too hard on yourself when you find yourself having to work at this on a daily basis. When you make an effort, even a small one, you shift your mindset to what is really important, building your relationship with God, your purpose, and learning your authentic self.

When your ego is having a “garbage filling session,” as I like to call it since it fills your mind up with muddy waste and not reality, it can be hard to realize that this is your ego and not your higher self.  Many people can get the two confused when having conversations with themselves. Imagine it this way, ego is dark, it only exists in a state of fear and is the farthest things from the Divine that can be experienced. Your ego wants to see you fail, it wants you to believe that you do not matter,  that all those goals you have cannot be accomplished and it will feed you nonsense everyday if you keep listening to it and living in that fear.  Then, there is your highest self, it is made of pure light and love. Your higher self is going to encourage you and tell you what you need to do to reach those goals because you are destined for them. It will help you attain self-love, and bring peace and calmness to your mind of worries. So, if your mind is bringing you down, making you feel anything less than a deserving worthy loving being, you are dealing with your ego.

I personally struggle with my ego almost every day, as most of us do.  My weak point is when I think someone is upset with me, not that we should care, but we all do. I dwell on this for days, from the moment I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep, and sometimes even in my dreams. I replay conversations, or conversations I want to have, thought I should have, or any conversation I think will help resolve the issue. But, my ego just keeps making me more upset about the situation. This tends to happen to me more with my “Teachers”. These are the people who were sent to my life to help me grow, but in the meantime push every button I have and drive me absolutely crazy in the process and always have me in a state of doubting myself and being fearful. We all have them, so I know you can relate to who yours are as well. I think I have worked through a lesson, and then it sneaks back in and my ego starts filling my head back up with all these fears and lies again. When this happens here is what I say, and maybe it will help you as well. “Ego, I am not entertaining you today! I have already worked through this (fear, situation, lesson, argument, person, etc.). If you want to go talk to someone about it, go talk to God, because I am done talking to you about it.” Sometimes this works for a few minutes, and sometimes the whole day, but if you say it enough, your ego will start to realize that it is not going to win. It will give you one heck of a fight, but you can overcome it. Every time you take the power away from the ego, it gets weaker and you get stronger.

When you stop feeding the ego with more fear, it will be an easier process, and you will be able to walk in your path, have a better relationship with yourself and God. You will also find that your relationships improve with loved ones, family, and friends when they are based in love and not fears. So remember, when you find yourself facing your ego, let it know that you choose to not live in the fear, but in the light. Say it out loud if you have to from a mountain top, or scream it into a pillow but release it. You may be finding yourself filled with negative thoughts, but one positive thought is hundreds of times more powerful. So, just shift it a little and say a positive thought and you will find yourself living in harmony with your higher self and your divine source.  Look for more posts on the ego in the future, as there is so much to say about it, and various aspects to cover. Until then have patience with yourself and implement a process that helps keep your mind on the light.

Stay Inspired by the Divine

Stacey

© 2015 Elysian Life Design. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express or written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Elysian Life Design with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.