inner peace
Why cultivate inner peace?
Gandhi taught that as peacemakers, we must be nonviolent toward others in EVERY way--in thoughts, words, and actions.
Watch your own thoughts. How often do you feel irritated--at yourself, a situation, or another person? How often do you let negative thoughts grow like mold? Cultivating lovingkindness and peace in our own thoughts and hearts makes life better. For ourselves. For everyone.
Gandhi taught that as peacemakers, we must be nonviolent toward others in EVERY way--in thoughts, words, and actions.
Watch your own thoughts. How often do you feel irritated--at yourself, a situation, or another person? How often do you let negative thoughts grow like mold? Cultivating lovingkindness and peace in our own thoughts and hearts makes life better. For ourselves. For everyone.
Some ways to cultivate more steady inner peace:
Animate On Scroll.
Come back to your heart.
Find your calm center there.
Find your calm center there.
- First, breathe into your heart. Feel like you are breathing straight through your chest into your heart. What do you feel now?
- Second, picture something or someone you really love. Let that feeling of love or a feeling of gratitude rest in your heart. You may feel your negative thoughts and emotions dissolve away.
- Third, Ask your heart if it has any wisdom for you.
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Live a grateful life.
Living gratefully changes everything.
It's more than just keeping a gratitude journal (though that's a great practice!). Living gratefully opens us up to "wonder, joy, and love."
We urge you to immerse yourself in learning and practicing with the "online sanctuary," gratefulness.org.
Living gratefully changes everything.
It's more than just keeping a gratitude journal (though that's a great practice!). Living gratefully opens us up to "wonder, joy, and love."
We urge you to immerse yourself in learning and practicing with the "online sanctuary," gratefulness.org.
Animate On Scroll.
Rest your stressed-out brain.
You already know: mindfulness is good for body, mind, and soul.
We will just say: Meditation can help you grow your inner peacefulness. It actually can change your brain.
See the many benefits of meditation here.
Get free guided meditations, info, and support at Declutter the Mind. Plum Village provides free meditations based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn.
You already know: mindfulness is good for body, mind, and soul.
We will just say: Meditation can help you grow your inner peacefulness. It actually can change your brain.
See the many benefits of meditation here.
Get free guided meditations, info, and support at Declutter the Mind. Plum Village provides free meditations based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn.
Animate On Scroll.
Send out love.
Loving-kindness blessing is a way to offer yourself and others with the deepest gifts. The daily practice of loving-kindness, or metta, can deepen your compassion and inner strength.
Let your heart fill with light and love and then send words of love to yourself, then a loved one, then a stranger, then a difficult person, and then the entire world:
"May I be at peace. May my heart remain open.
May I realize the beauty of my own true nature.
May I be healed. May I be a source of healing for this world."
"May you be at peace. May your heart remain open.
May you realize the beauty of your true nature.
May you be healed. May you be a source of healing for the world."
(From Karen Wyatt, 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying)
Experience this guided lovingkindness meditation from On Being.
Loving-kindness blessing is a way to offer yourself and others with the deepest gifts. The daily practice of loving-kindness, or metta, can deepen your compassion and inner strength.
Let your heart fill with light and love and then send words of love to yourself, then a loved one, then a stranger, then a difficult person, and then the entire world:
"May I be at peace. May my heart remain open.
May I realize the beauty of my own true nature.
May I be healed. May I be a source of healing for this world."
"May you be at peace. May your heart remain open.
May you realize the beauty of your true nature.
May you be healed. May you be a source of healing for the world."
(From Karen Wyatt, 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying)
Experience this guided lovingkindness meditation from On Being.
Animate On Scroll.
Free yourself from poison.
Forgiveness is a radical act of peacemaking.
Festering resentments destroy inner--and outer--peace.
Gandhi said, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
Jack Kornfield writes, "Forgiveness sees wisely. It willingly acknowledges what is unjust, harmful, and wrong. It bravely recognizes the sufferings of the past, and understands the conditions that brought them about. There is a strength to forgiveness. When we forgive we can also say, 'Never again will I allow these things to happen.' ....And at the same time we can also resolve to release the past and not carry bitterness and hate in our heart.
Explore forgiveness practices from Jack's website.
Forgiveness is a radical act of peacemaking.
Festering resentments destroy inner--and outer--peace.
Gandhi said, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
Jack Kornfield writes, "Forgiveness sees wisely. It willingly acknowledges what is unjust, harmful, and wrong. It bravely recognizes the sufferings of the past, and understands the conditions that brought them about. There is a strength to forgiveness. When we forgive we can also say, 'Never again will I allow these things to happen.' ....And at the same time we can also resolve to release the past and not carry bitterness and hate in our heart.
Explore forgiveness practices from Jack's website.
Animate On Scroll.
Transform suffering.
Joan Halifax writes that Tonglen is one of the richest and bravest practices we can do.
In this practice, you visualize receiving suffering, and transforming it into love, peace, mercy, and light.
Through regular practice of Tonglen, we can develop compassion and the ability to be present to suffering.
You can begin to learn the practice at the Lions Roar website, here.
Joan Halifax writes that Tonglen is one of the richest and bravest practices we can do.
In this practice, you visualize receiving suffering, and transforming it into love, peace, mercy, and light.
Through regular practice of Tonglen, we can develop compassion and the ability to be present to suffering.
You can begin to learn the practice at the Lions Roar website, here.
