Peace

When things finally fall into place, I'll be at peace.
OR
First find peace within, then watch things fall into place.

These are two starkly different approaches to life proposed by American Buddhist Monk Pema Chodron. One requires living more preoccupied with BOTH the past and the future. The other inspires living in the present. Which do you tend to do? So many clients I work with are guilt ridden about yesterday and frantic about controlling the future, so they exist in a constant state of dis-ease. They are tense, anxious, physically sick, have the fear of missing out and constantly determine their self worth by comparing themselves to others. Our mind takes us on wild journeys down memory lane and jettisons us into the months ahead. Our body is the intelligence that is always in the here and now. With attention to the body in this present moment, I work with willing clients to find more peace, sanity, confidence, letting go and trust in their world.

TRY THIS: Feel four points of contact of your body on your chair. Relax your abdominals. Feel four edges of your feet in your shoes and press them into the floor. Notice at least two directions that your body moves as you breathe naturally. Whatever was just going on in your cognition went away momentarily. You were present, at peace. Once daily peace and acceptance are established, what happened yesterday and what is yet to happen tomorrow, matter less.

At the end of each day, I like to review the gratitude, the successes and also review the lessons, the challenges, then I thank it and visualize it burning away. The day is done. No longer exists. Tomorrow is brand new. No one knows what happens tomorrow or if tomorrow will even come. We can do our part, but we cannot control the future. So while you're running ragged, obsessing, you're missing the peace in this moment. Things rarely get smoothly accomplished by frantic worried minds. Establish peace in your body first, and then you'll be less influenced by and attached to whether things fall into place.

All we have is this present moment of peace.