Peace. I love the word. For me, my mind immediately calms down. I feel the Love God has for me within my heart. It is warm, graceful, powerful, and kind. In this world, we are constantly bombarded with noise. Noise from our cell phones, YouTube, Facebook, our co-workers, our family, our traffic drive and all the rest.
Our attention is quickly snatched to and fro and each demand requires our full attention. At the end of all this, when there are no more demands and we are all alone, we find our mind still turning. The things that we put down to pick up someone else has come back to the forefront of our mind. Did I give the right advice? I should have said this! I wonder if they perceive me differently now? I wonder if I worded that correctly? Should I have said that?
Maybe our minds go even deeper into our future and past. All the things that we hope to gain and all the things we wish we could forget. With the noise that surrounds us inside and out, how do we find peace?
What is Peace?
There are a few definitions for peace, but this article will focus on the freedom from disquieting and oppressive thoughts https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peace. I am currently reading an excellent book that states “as a man thinks so is he”. In other words, whatever is going on in the mind will exude into one’s physical and emotional reality creating a peaceful life or a place of unrest. To be at peace is to be in a state of harmony or tranquility. The question is, who will you be in harmony and tranquility with? I believe the best answer for this is to practice self-transcendence.
Self-transcendence
Self-transcendence is to rise above yourself. According to Positivepsychology.com, it is the ability to go beyond your current experience and see from a higher perspective https://positivepsychology.com/self-transcendence/.
I am a Christian, so my vision from a Higher Perspective is through God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. Others may be able to guide you into peace without Jesus, but that is not an experience that I can relate to. I have tried yoga, the universal truth, and astrology however, none of these have brought me the supernatural peace that Jesus has given to me. This article’s analysis of finding inner peace will be from a Christian perspective.
According to an article published by the University of Hawaii, those who practice self-transcendence display connectedness, humility, and present-moment living which are essential in a peace-driven life https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/7844120d-74dc-48b3-9f6c-0b1e21ad8bba.
I find the best way to connect with God is through prayer. When I am connected to The Most High, I am able to unload my mental yoke and get assistance in choosing what is worth meditating on and what isn’t.
Pray
The first step to obtaining and retaining peace is to understand that you are not the highest being there is. You are a beautiful creation from the heart and mind of The Most High God but given that you have free will, you are going to make mistakes and fall into sin. Sin has often been understood to mean breaking the law of God. Though there is some validity to this definition, I want to focus on the Hebrew word for sin “Chata”.
Chata means to miss the mark according to PursueGod.org https://www.pursuegod.org/the-meaning-of-sin-in-hebrew/#:~:text=on%20this%20conversation.-,Excursus%201,/losing%E2%80%9D)%20your%20way and by definition of Merriam-Webster, to miss the mark means to be wrong or to fail https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/miss%20its%2Fthe%20mark#:~:text=idiom,but%20it%20missed%20the%20mark. We can and often do miss the mark with ourselves and others. Taking the time to dissect the reason for our mental unrest will bring us to the failure of not letting things go, the intentional misuse of our words to harm someone else, the willful rejection of practicing self-control, or another short-coming that is causing our mind to turn.
By acknowledging our missing of the mark, we can bring God the truth of what is going on in our mind, break down what we feel about it and apologize to Him for any action we took in participating in the disruption of our peace. We can then ask Him, in prayer, to assist us in quieting our minds and sorting through our thoughts to the resolution of the issue at hand. Once we pray, we must humble ourselves before God and trust in His ability to bring us into the correct position.
Humility
Humility is a word that gets a bad wrap because it is often defined as thinking of yourself as lowly. The Merriam-Webster definition is to be free from pride or arrogance or to be humble. To be humble is to reflect in a spirit of respect and esteem due a superior. I would go further and define humility as the constant state of reflection in the spirit of respect due to The Most High God.
The National Library of Medicine released a study in 2024 citing humility has a positive correlation in individual well-being https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10959100/ and well-being is strongly linked to peace https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24128320/#:~:text=We%20discuss%20how%20positive%20emotions,and%20work%20toward%20global%20peace.
Practicing humility is a task for the mind. By praying and humbling ourselves before God, we can self-transcend our current situation to see a bigger picture. Though our mind is calling us to focus on the future challenges and resolutions, we can quiet our thoughts and focus on the present moment.
Present Moment Living
Present moment living is focusing on what is happening now. Letting go of the past and controlling your mind’s attempt to wander. I like to think of my mind as a strong living being. Though it is apart of me, it has it’s own intentions. Maybe it wants me to survive, so it will begin to conjure up future goals to ensure my survival. It may be concerned about my position in the community and will attempt to bring my focus to a conversation that may have offended someone. For reasons that are unbeknownst to me, my mind has a life of it’s own.
Though our minds may be strong, we are stronger. We can change the direction our thoughts are going and redirect them toward the present moment. I like to consider the things I received in the day such as life, the life of my kids, the life of my husband and family and the ability to speak with The Most High God. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. I like to think of this as being in constant communication with God throughout the day. Telling Him what is going on, speaking to Him about what may be having a negative impact on my energy, and asking Him how I should think of it. I know that God gives me the instructions on how to handle my thought life because my energy becomes calm, my mind slows down, and I am able to understand what I am thinking. Simply put, God gives me peace.
John 14:27
Peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Therefore, let not your heart be troubled; neither be afraid.
With Love,
Mother Ocia