By Lauren Catanese

Ego says – Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel inner peace. Spirit says – Find your inner peace and then everything will fall into place.– Marianne Williamson

Are you on a quest to finding peace? It can be a process. We can try to always do the right things, be conscious and act from a place of love. We can do affirmations, workouts, spend time in nature, breathing techniques, journal writing, even consulting with an expert or therapist. It is tempting to try and control everything around us, so “the boat doesn’t get rocked” in fear that we will feel anything other than peace. But the truth is, its out of our power. It is out of our control. Life happens. And it happens in ways that are meant to be, even if we don’t see that or understand it in the moment. The universe brings us happiness and contrast. We want to feel peaceful and yet we can feel discouraged, angry, upset, overwhelmed, stressed out. And we say,  “I want to have peace. And if life can happen this way, then all will be good and I will be at peace.” That’s where we get caught. That’s where we get discouraged.

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

– Eckhart Tolle

Peace is within us. This is not a notion or something that we have to work towards in order to feel. It’s not a matter of working on ourselves in any way. In fact there is absolutely nothing you have to learn or study or even know about. A beautiful thing that life has given to us all is our inherent nature. It’s this amazing expansive space within us that is true peace. And it is there, always. Like a light. Like a hug from your grandma, or a hot cocoa on a cold day. Like the warmth of the sun on your face, or the feeling you have when you are in a state of bliss. Yes, that magical feeling is always there. Always there! I promise! And when you feel it, that’s when it hits you. That peace is never something you have to search for. Peace is there, in any given moment, no matter how disastrous things may be. You can close your eyes and connect to this special place. Life will bring us through all sorts of situations and predicaments. We cannot wait for life to be seemingly peaceful for us to be satisfied. It’s coming to a place where even in the most chaotic of times and even in the most joyful of times, we an always connect to our peace.

How to connect to your Peace:

1. Close your eyes
2. Ask yourself, what is present when you have no thoughts? Your thoughts are going to be in full form here, but just let them keep passing, let them float on by. Keep going deeper than the thoughts. Past any visualizations. What is there?
3. Stay with it, when you feel it you will know. It might be for a brief moment. But you will feel it undoubtedly. Welcome to your inner peace!
   In the moments where life feels like its testing you to the max, or even when you just want to feel that sweetness of the connection. Follow these steps back to your inner peace, your inner space. It is always there. Just waiting to connect with you.

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