The principles of peace.
How would you define peace? It’s kind of a tough one, because each of us has a slightly different understanding of the feeling, and our own definition of how we get there.
But the similarities are greater than the differences, and so I thought I would share my principles for peace, in the hopes that it might help you as you walk your own journey.
It starts with one principle... Solitude.
I don’t mean being alone, although that is definitely a part of this principle. For me, solitude means a level of self acceptance and balance. It’s that state where you have no need for anyone else.
If you’ve read my work, you’ll probably have heard me talk about the 6 human needs, and how they define and control our actions.
Solitude is the state of balance in your needs, so that you are ‘self-referential’; meaning that you don’t need anyone else to be at peace.
That sound like a hard thing to achieve, and make no mistake, it is, except that the principle behind it is easier than you could possibly imagine.
All it requires is forgiveness, acceptance, knowledge and dedication to something other than yourself.
Forgiveness: learning how to forgive yourself for your mistakes and weaknesses. The deeper you learn about yourself, and how you have been conditioned in life, the more you come to understand your mistakes through the filter of a distorted need, or a response to trauma.
You can learn to forgive yourself, and cast off the burdens of shame, guilt and feelings of inadequacy. In time, you’ll learn to stop judging yourself, and those around you.
Acceptance: coming to a knowledge of who you really are. This begins with the process of analyzing your strengths and weaknesses, your traumas and ideation of self.
Moving further, you realize that none of these are actually you at all, just states of being that your consciousness, the awareness that you call you, is currently experiencing. As your identity becomes awareness, rather than expression, the definitions of the outside world fall away.
Dedication to something other than yourself: this is the adoption of purpose as identity, rather than the ideas of self that you gave away in acceptance.
When you become a part of something greater than yourself, you find your peace through identity of the principle that you espouse (can you see the word spouse in that word – you become married to a higher purpose). When you become a principle, then your need for identity is sufficient, because you find all the significance and connection you need there.
I know that sounds like a lot, and it is, but once you grasp the concept of a self referential peace, then everything else falls away.
You exist in your current relationships being grateful for whatever you receive, but needing nothing, and giving of yourself freely. You encounter every situation taking nothing, fearing nothing, but serving at the highest level of your aspirations and desires.
True peace is calm and serenity in the presence of solitude.
I pray you can find your way there, and that I may be of help along your journey.
Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings