The Importance of Inner Peace

The Importance of Inner Peace

In a world of lurking monsters

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In stories, heroes seldom have anxiety. Most of the time they are depicted as brave and mentally strong, even when faced with frightening obstacles. They demolish evil monsters with effortless grace and then save the loved one or obtain the desired treasure.

Funny, right?

I have anxiety, like many other people. Everything scares me and sometimes I can’t even face my own monsters. The more I live in this world, the more I feel that suffering from anxiety should be considered normal and reasonable. Healthy, even. Because if you really think about it, which I’m sure several of you anxiety sufferers do, there are so many scary things in the world!

Here, I came up with a list of some of them:

The Arbitrary List of Scary Things in the World

(Warning: this might induce your anxiety more):

Alzheimer’s Disease
Mass shootings
ISIS
Parasites
Burdening others
Falling in love, messing it up and regretting it for the rest of your life
Being honest with yourself and others
The fact that you won’t see many people whom you’ve interacted with ever again
Road accidents
Cancer
Sexual predators
Mental instability
Something going wrong in childbirth
War
A super-volcano eruption
Losing sight of who you are
Becoming paralyzed
The death of loved ones
Growing old
Losing all your money
Becoming homeless
The pressure of living up to your own expectations as well as those of others
No one caring about something you’re proud of and put effort into
Deceit
Being made fun of
Being unattractive (on the inside or outside)
Going blind or deaf
Deadly pandemics
Climate change
Losing the will to live

Some people may find some things more frightening than others. Cancer might be more scary to someone than going blind or deaf. Something going wrong in childbirth might be more relatable to someone than road accidents. To a child, being made fun of might be the scariest thing on this list. To a woman, sexual predators might be more of a concern than they are to men (Not to discount the fact that men can also be victims). Climate change is something everyone on Earth can, and should, fear.

It’s interesting to think about perspective and circumstances. I’m a well-off white girl. I can’t begin to imagine what life must be like for minorities and people who weren’t dealt with the best cards. People who live in unsafe, terrifying places. I could be in bed eating cake while someone else is witnessing their loved one being shot. It’s tragic and unfair.

The world outside is unpredictable. We don’t know what will happen. The things to fear will always be there, no matter how much control we think we have.

But one thing we do have control over is our true selves. Our inner world. Even though “lose sight of yourself” and “alzheimer’s” are on my list, our inner world is always there where our pure soul can be found. Our pure soul reaches beyond all memories and experiences. It is our ancestral energy that holds ancient wisdom and truths. All beings have a pure soul.

When we tap into it by digging deeper into ourselves, when we see it with our busy human minds, it never goes away. If we get lost, we can be found again. No matter what is happening in the world on the outside, we can find comfort in that fact. We can use it for creativity and helping others, we can use it for learning more about ourselves, we can use it to find inner peace and harmony.

It won’t make the fearful things go away, and it probably won’t cure our anxiety. But it will help us in our search for an understanding of this confusing world. It would also help the world cultivate a more synergistic positive energy. As I’m sure a Zen monk has once expressed, to find peace in the world one must first find peace in themselves.

That is the importance of inner peace.

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From my blog: https://thelostwordsblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/musings/
July 15th, 2016 at 07:13am