Find Your Calm Every Day

"Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."

I really love this quote because it helps us reframe our ideas around what it means to be calm or find calm. It takes the pressure off.
Oftentimes we think that we need to get rid of all the negative thoughts and challenges to be calm. Well good luck, because that ain't going to happen.
When we understand that we don't need to "get rid" of anything to find peace, we can finally relax.

The greatest skill and strength we can develop is the ability to engage in our imperfect, messy lives and find the space and calm in the midst of it all.

I'm not going to leave you hangin' to just "think" about what this would mean because there are actually practices we can develop and integrate into our everyday lives that create this state no matter what you are going through.

1 Drop the Resistance
If we just allowed ourselves to experience what we're experiencing right now without judgement, without labeling it as good/bad or right/wrong, we would find so much more ease. No matter what the emotion or state we are in, we always have access to ease. It's what we "think" about the experience that causes the resistance.

You are okay, right where you are. Everything is okay when you stop fighting it.

2 Practice Just Being
Take time to just be.
One of the challenges I find myself having these days is letting go of the need to respond to messages right away and check my phone for updates. They can wait.
Making my well-being a priority, making it a priority to get into a place of calm and connected-ness to myself first can be such a game changer.
Take time to be with yourself, with whatever you are experiencing, in stillness.
Greet yourself with unconditional love and kindness and allow yourself the space to process where you're at.

3 Make Peace with your Past and Let Yourself Heal
Often we allow our past to mean more than it has to. You are who you are now in this living, breathing present experience and you are constantly evolving and growing into greater awareness and potential.

Yes, our past is part of our story and in many ways has contributed to where we are now, but right now is your point of access. Choice, being, presence, power and aliveness are available to us in this moment, not in the past. Your past has no more power over you than you allow it to in this moment.

The only reason it keeps coming up now is because there is resistance. Maybe you need to forgive yourself or forgive someone else. Or maybe you need to let yourself heal or accept and honor the struggles you had in the past. Once we love all of who we are, we can relax into the now.

4 Trust Yourself
Many times, our fear of the future, of uncertainty and doubting whether we can handle a certain thing causes us stress in this moment. The "what if's" can be deadly.
Trust yourself that you'll handle whatever is yet to come, when and if it comes.
Fear is bullshit. It is a story we create in our minds to protect ourselves from uncertainty. Instead, we can learn to acknowledge the fear, but understand that it is just a feeling and not indicative of what will happen. You will handle what happens when it happens. You will know what to do and how to be.