Peace...and Quiet

Peace and Quiet

“All I want is a little PEACE and QUIET!” How many times have you said that? I know I have said it countless times. Isn’t it interesting that these two words go together so often? As we all seek more peace in our lives and in the world, do you think we would find that peace more easily if we DID have more quiet? What keeps us from turning off the noise of our lives so we can hear ourselves think, and listen to what we feel and know?

Truthfully, while I say I want quiet, I do a lot of things that keep me caught in the whirl of activities, noise, and drama of daily life. Even as I sit here now, I’m aware of the email I can check, the phone that is ringing and my mental checklist with more things to do. Of course that says nothing about the constant interruptions of traffic and airplane noise, dogs barking, television and radio background noise Peace and quiet is a good thing…and why do I/we spend so much time avoiding it?

When I began journal writing more than 25 years ago, it was to enter more of the silence, to listen to my inner self and to quiet the external chatter that just seemed to add to the confusion of my life at that time. Journal writing did help—and of course, has become the tool that I teach others now to help them move into their own deeper wisdom and knowing. Why is it that we move into these deeper spaces most often when we are threatened in some way?

I know why journaling works for me---it’s because it allows me to start where I am---all wound up, threatened perhaps, and to gently move, moment by moment into more thoughtfulness and more quiet…and eventually to more peace. I become aware, as I write, about those things that are ‘poking me’ unconsciously, keeping me wound up, and as I untangle those thoughts and feelings I get a better grip on myself and begin to breathe more easily. I express the feelings that need to be released, and as I make more room inside, somehow the wisdom, or as I like to put it, the “magic” begins to bubble up. It’s rare that I finish a journal writing session feeling anything but calm, peaceful and more refreshed.

Now, as I write this I know I haven’t explained why I don’t do more of it, why I still avoid stillness and quietness at times. For one thing, it’s easier to stay on the same speed setting, so to speak, all the time. It takes work and energy to shift from our cultural norm of rushing through traffic, or spending frantic minutes at work, into a quieter and more peaceful place. To be truthful, from the busy perspective of our modern lives, it can seem almost like a waste of time to shift into a calmer place. How will we be able to get all those things done!!!! And yet oddly, when we are in that calmer and quieter place, ALL those things seem much less important.

My commitment for now is to make more time to explore this calm and gentle way of being. I am certain that as we all take more of this kind of quality time with ourselves, that we will automatically be offering more peaceful energy to the whole world.

Perhaps you could take some time now, to sit down and write about what’s going on in your life right now. Are you wound up? What needs to be released? What do you want, where are you going and what gets in your way? As you dump those feelings you will begin to see things differently as you read what you have written. After you dump some of your distress the peacefulness will begin to enter in, and with it will come more wisdom and more awareness of what is really important. Enjoy this new view of your life.Peace--Sue