Finding Peace
As the new year begins we once again are provided with a fresh start and opportunity to make a positive change in the way we live our lives. Among the common New Year’s resolutions of being more active, eating better, and losing weight many of us might be looking to find more peace in our lives. And let’s be honest, we could all benefit from finding more peace on a daily basis. As cliche as it is, I believe that finding more peace might be the one resolution that will help you achieve all the other resolutions and goals that you have for yourself in 2023.
First, I want you to think about how you define peace and what “finding peace” means to you. What’s that look like for you? Is it a warm, sunny beach? Maybe a cozy lodge in the mountains? Or is it enjoying a cup of coffee with an empty schedule? All of those things sound awesome and peaceful to me.
But, how often are you laying on a warm, sunny beach, spending time in a cozy mountain lodge, or sipping coffee with nothing on your schedule for the day? If you're an average person like me, probably not all that often. One of the reasons why it is so difficult for us to find peace in our daily lives is because our definition and idea of finding peace is not realistic. Sure peace can be found laying on a beach, being in a mountain lodge, and enjoying coffee on a day without much to do, but peace can also be found running errands, working a long day, practicing your sport on a day where you’re exhausted and in a thousand other things. Finding peace should not just be reserved for the highlight moments of our lives on weekends and vacations, but rather should be something we find in our regular day to day lives.
Google defines peace as “freedom from disturbance; tranquility”. Now, would I love to live in a world free of disturbance with an unlimited amount of tranquility? Absolutely, but I have a wife (laugh), a job, and very soon we will have a new baby joining our family! If I were to go by the normal definition of peace I don’t think my life would qualify as “peaceful”... what about you all? Do you live in the real world too? Neat!
So how can we find peace in our normal, busy, chaotic, and not always tranquil life?
Well, in order for us to find peace more often, we must change the way we define and find peace. We have to begin to make peace in areas of our lives that we might not view as being peaceful on the surface level and that's really challenging. It all starts by re-defining peace in a way that makes sense to you. To help get you started on that, here’s how I define peace in a way that makes sense to me:
peace - A state of calmness, stillness, and acceptance regardless of what’s going on in the world around me.
Once we re-define what peace means to us, we can then begin to identify what things factor into achieving our definition of peace. Here are the three pieces that come together in my life to bring me peace in my normal, busy, chaotic, and not always tranquil life:
A love and value for the smallest moments of my day-day life.
Having the ability to relinquish total control of every aspect of my life.
Creating a balance between work and play and having fun with everything I do.
When those three things come together I am at peace in my life, whether I’m sitting on a beach or in the middle of a long work day.
So as you move into 2023 take some time to re-define what peace means to you and build your understanding of where your peace comes from. When you have your own definition of peace and a clear understanding of where your peace comes from, you will begin to find peace in areas of your life you never thought were possible.