What happened to my peace?

Why do you suppose that the peace we achieve from our favorite relaxation activities doesn’t seem to last once we re-enter our day to day activities that make up our world?
Why is peace and relaxation such a precious commodity? In fact it is quite astounding that we have come to accept this brief respite as a way of life.

It’s not that difficult to find an activity that brings us some respite from the stress of the world, however it does take some practice to learn how to stabilize it in your life.   For example, you return home from 2 weeks of R&R in Bali, or you have the most wonderful weekend at your favorite resort & spa and the next day on your commute in to work it starts to hit you.   Memories of all the troubles, conflicts, and fears that are waiting for you, just minutes away, flow through your mind and then CLICK, your back.  Your not just back to the old geography, but the old mindset of stress and the eventual mounting of tension in your body.

Although the body can experience great rest and relaxation, that alone is just not enough to create a sustained sense of rest as you return to the stress of daily activities.  You could say that our bodies are rested but our minds have those same “old stories” of the situations and circumstances that are the stressors in your life.   Returning to the old stressors in our life, without seeing them from a different point of view, cannot create a different reaction to them.  Instead it is like the old definition of insanity that states; ”Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

Our minds seem to trump our bodies all the time.  Have you noticed that no matter how wonderful you feel there is always some thought that can come to mind and wipe the slate clean and return us to unrest and anxiety.  We haven’t a clue where it came from or when it is going to happen,  so we chalk it up to our “unconscious mind”  as the trouble maker.   Yet there is something that we can consciously do.

In conjunction with regular periods of relaxation, the practice of “re-spinning” our beliefs about what the stressors in our life mean can create “sustainability” in relieving stress from our life, relationships, and working environment.

So the next time you return home from your favorite vacation or yoga class and find yourself at the mercy of a negative or fearful thought, stop for a moment, and ask yourself
“is this what I really believe?”   Ask yourself if that thought is really true.  Don’t take it seriously or laugh it off, and then observe how miraculously your peace of mind remains intact.

This will take some practice and is a process that doesn’t occur the first time you do it. Over time, with practice or with the help of a coach you will master it and your peace of mind will remain under your control from that point on.

Give it try and let me know how it goes

Ed