Prioritise your peace
Why do I value peace above all things?
Why do I see it as not a nice to have, but an absolute bottom line necessity?
Because peace is the glue that allows everything that is good. It is the foundation to calm, clear, creative, enjoyable and meaningful living.
Truly: ALL good comes from prioritising peace first.
But that’s not how our world does it.
We attempt to tick off our to do lists, tease out the problems, rearrange the past and solve the future to our satisfaction … we try and do, do, do, and only then maybe get to peace — and all because we don’t see how valuable it is. Peace feels like a trivial thing compared with tackling all the challenges we need to tackle.
You want — nay, you NEED — to prioritise your peace because then ALL of life, even the problems, become simple.
Challenges are the stuff of life, for sure. Life IS illness and newborns and plan changes and the unexpected. Even this plague that is upon us: it may be rare, but it’s not unheard of.
Yet when you prioritise peace you’re making the foundation of your whole life one of calm, clarity and ease. From there you can truly deal with these challenges — from a completely different, more effective, even more enjoyable, place.
You don’t waste your energy on the things you have no control over. Which is brilliant. You leave alone the things you can’t do anything about. You channel your focus very precisely, and sleep well too.
You think clearer, you get more creative and intuitive. When you’re flying off the handle, you just see problems. Get still and calm and you start to see solutions. It’s not just a cliche, it’s true.
You become a rock for everyone around you. While their mind is freaking out, you are a source of tangible calm, a point of stability and certainty: something to cling to when it seems like the world is falling into chaos.
You also get better physical health. Mental and emotional stress alone destroys our immunity, it causes our DNA to fry. Peace, calm, and ease promotes healing and rejuvenation.
Prioritising your peace is not a luxury, it’s not a nice to have. It’s a necessity.
And it’s never too late to do.
How?
Great question.
Part of it is an approach, an attitude thing.
Make peace first and last. Devote your whole day to it — and then explore.
Manyu, a fellow Ishaya monk, loves to get people to play with the following:
Assume this is the only moment that exists. Just here. Let this be enough. Arrive, be in this moment, stay awhile. Breathe deep, let go. You can get back to everything in a minute, but for now … surrender to this.
The more you do this the more you’ll find you can do it anytime, anywhere, even in the middle of action. The more you practice, the more the presence of now calls you, the easier it will be to remember.
Start now, return when you forget. Return, return, return.
Prioritise your peace — protect your peace, it’s so important.
