Keeping peace of mind IS a mind space that can be hard to embody as the world churns and turns.
Before I start standing up and singing “Give Peace a Chance,” I will say the more we can do to calm ourselves down first, when we’re undergoing feelings of fear or stress or anguish, the better our response(s) will be. Ground yourself in whatever healthy ways you can and then you can try to give back and be kind to others and make a difference in the world.
Breathe deep, pray or turn to your faith tradition, get out in nature if you can, try time away from your devices. Do what you can to be gentle and thoughtful to yourself. Craft or create or do something that helps others. Raise awareness, raise money, reach out to someone in a caring and compassionate way. The peace starts within.
There is always the question of how do I stay peaceful when there is world turmoil and upheaval going on around me. But, the mind is only able to fixate on what one feeds it. If you feed it more agitation and spending time on your device, or staying up late watching destruction in Eastern Europe, then it will have a hard time making peaceful movements towards helping, but will feel fear and angst and perhaps get more overwhelmed than be able to take rightful action towards change.
One quick go-to writing exercise that helps me when I’m feeling a lot of feelings all at once, and not knowing where to “start” is to sit down and quickly jot down the responses to the following “structured write” journaling prompts. Do all of these quickly without analyzing and see if it may help you too. Remember to breathe!
Three feelings I feel right now ________ ________ ________
The topic I want to explore is…………………………………………
The first thing that comes to mind is…………………………………
Beneath the surface I find……………………………………………..
I am uncomfortable with………………………………………………..
I am hopeful about……………………………………………………..
I would benefit from……………………………………..……………….
The next step is………………………………………………………..…
Three feelings I feel right now ________ ________ ________
Hopefully by the end of doing this, you feel a little calmer and more grounded in your body and mind. All you can really do is start “at home,” before you move out into the world.
It’s almost springtime. Open the windows and let the light enter within.