Breathe Peace

Photo Courtesy of Van Archiquette

Do you wish you had more peace? Do you feel you need rules and tools and divine intervention to find it? Most of us live a normal, nutsy life and look for peace in parks, moments, people and experiences. Some of us use tools like meditation, music or massage to transport us to tranquility. As a culture, we search for peace and forget, or never knew, peace in the middle of everyday chaos.

The esoteric answer "peace comes from within", frustratingly, doesn't come with an instruction manual. Does your curious mind ask, "Yes, but... how and where do I find peace inside me?" only to hear "You think too much." Although true, peace does come from within, simple answers like these leave us feeling stupid and stressed instead of peaceful. We suffer the "If I would only..." syndrome. Instead of searching for the nearest Valium, lets sit with the frustration just a little longer while we look closer at the "how" and "how to" of peace.

"Breathe Peace" was coined by my friend as a young man. To me, breathe peace means that with our breath, we breathe in peace and send it back out into the world. It's a lovely way of seeing peace as both action and experience. It gives us something constructive to do instead of running after the promise of peace.

But wait, is that allowed? Didn't the media, marketing and religion teach us that peace must be earned or mystically bestowed? Peace is something that happens to us, leaving us longing and unworthy when it's gone? What if peace wasn't only a noun or adjective, but a vibrant, living verb? Full of color and movement and life. The idea of "breathing peace" brings the action into focus as well as the experience.

This "Breathing Peace" versus "Looking For Peace" came in sharp review today as I compared two recent summer weddings. The first one, I wasn't invited to and didn't really mind. I knew this person wasn't slighting me and was glad they were wise with their money. I moved past any "poor me" in moments. The second, I WAS invited to and felt disturbed for weeks. Wondering at deeper, darker intentions and picking the invitation apart, eventually deciding to stay home. It's curious how different interpretations of similar events trigger opposite feelings. Weird.

Our every day is made of unique interpretations of what we see, hear, feel, taste, smell, perceive... What, exactly, is real? To follow that thought, if most of what I see is my interpretation, I get to make everything flex to fit what I'd LIKE  to believe. The sun comes up because the universe is shining on me. She took my parking space because she's got so much on her mind she can't be nice. They invited me because although they don't always like me, sometimes they do. Keeping it just reasonable enough to fit our rational side and positive enough to let us move on to enjoying our life. Choosing peace. Breathing peace.

So, how do you find peace when you're decidedly disturbed? There's a million tools out there from mantra-ing the word "peace" to sitting by a tree to spending time with friends and family. What you're REALLY doing is telling yourself it's time to feel peaceful. You could skip the middleman and go directly to the verb- breathe peace. When you make a regular appointment with yourself to breathe peace, wherever you are, you will find it's as easy as imagining it.