Peacefulness
In an ideal world, peace would be the hallmark of our human existence. Along with love, of course. Unfortunately, we struggle to achieve peace within ourselves and our interactions with others. All over the world, across cultures, people commonly use expressions such as “Go in peace” or “May peace be with you.” Yet, frustratingly, it eludes us as a human race.
I can think of nothing more harmonious than peace, not even love. Loving others can prove painful sometimes, especially when loss comes into the picture. High expectations can also complicate love. However, peace and love can go hand in hand if the latter is compassionate and pure rather than selfish. Conceivably, peaceful coexistence on a global level would occur if everyone set aside their ego.
Why, then, is peace so hard to attain? On an individual level, a lack of inner calm usually indicates distress. Stress comes from many sources, both mental and physical. Our body responds to various ailments when we fail to look after our health with proper nutrition and exercise. Universally, when you fall ill, you typically feel lousy. In that condition, it’s harder to focus on inner tranquility. Similarly, our mental health significantly impacts our ability to cultivate peace within ourselves and our personal lives.
When insomnia plagues me, I can usually surmise that I’m anxious. Sometimes the cause of my anxiety isn’t readily apparent, but generally, it points to conflict in my life, be it with another person or internal. Through self-awareness, I’ve recognized that my struggles with self-worth and self-love are often the culprit for my inner turmoil. As with loving another, I achieve peace only when I show respect and compassion for myself. That’s often a challenging mindset for me as I’m usually my own harshest critic. Moreover, I rarely feel peaceful when I’m not at my physical best, either because I eat poorly or remain sedentary. The takeaway is that peace will only follow when we attend to our overall wellness.
What about peacefulness on a broader societal scale? Peace remains elusive among different countries, races, cultures, and religions. We don’t have to look very far for illustrations of disharmony, with rampant discrimination (racial, sexual, and otherwise) and gun violence on the rise in our nation. On a global level, the UN announced just a year ago that over two billion people live in conflict (Archie, 2022), and that number seems to keep multiplying. Sometimes I wonder if it would take an alien invasion, something akin to the Marvel movies, to unite humankind!
In truth, it’s far more straightforward. If each of us took the time to prioritize our inner peace and began with self-love, we’d have the capacity for love and peace on a greater scope. Imagine the chain reaction that would occur. Pretty amazing when you consider it. So, what if we start small and then go big? I refuse to believe that it’s beyond our capability. After all, we’ve made it to the moon! Instead of using technological advancement as a marker for human progress, let’s use peace.
