Congruence

con·gru·ence - the state or quality of being in agreement; correspondence; harmony

I've been thinking about this concept for a few weeks now and I believe it is a big key to maintaining a lifestyle of peace. Living a congruent life - where I engage as many of my faculties (mental, emotional, spiritual etc.) as I can in the pursuit of a specific goal or way of 'being' must be a major key in obtaining the desired end. Personally, I am realizing how much of my life has been lived out of obligation. 'Should,' 'must,' 'have to' have been common expressions in my self-talk but I'm seeing how dis-empowering thoughts like that actually are. Living with a clear purpose that I am actively able to 'engage' with on multiple levels of my being gives me not only a sense of vision and motivation for my future, but also a sense of freedom. If I don't actively live my life, life will just happen to me.

I'm not sure how a person could truly live a peaceful life apart from living a congruent life. Obviously, that may require time spent in discovering what your deepest values actually are and then building from the ground up, so to speak, so that your outward actions don't disagree with what is really important to you. I'm definitely 'pro' writing a personal life mission statement and even though I regularly 'tweak' mine, the underlying values are still the same. I see experiencing an abiding peace in my life as directly related to my ability to have as many aspects of 'me' lined up and in agreement with each other as possible. I don't mean this to sound like a big 'striving' session. In fact, the further I go, the more I am learning to 'settle down' into things that are already mine. So much of what life has to offer doesn't seem to be in the 'getting' but rather in the 'being' and then from that state of being, letting what's already there naturally 'flow' out. I'm finding this hard to explain because the bulk of what I'm learning about peace is difficult for me to put into words. I initially thought this blog would be easy to write because I am so excited about this journey that I'm on, but because this is such a personal experience for me, I feel like telling other people what they should or shouldn't do in order to know the things I'm talking about for themselves seems prescriptive and that's not what I want to do. I guess if something I say here inspires you to go on your own journey, then great, but it will be just that - your journey, with your experiences, your perceptions, your challenges and your victories. Perhaps you've already started and are further down the track than I am. For me, all I can say is that my life is truly getting better and better everyday and I can't wait to see what is up around the next bend. It's THAT good. :-)

Peace vs Stress

I haven't written anything in awhile. Not from lack of desire, but rather lack of inspiration. Maybe it's my perfectionism rearing its ugly head because I don't like writing anything unless it's going to be something I consider really worthwhile. Unfortunately, perfectionism and peace don't always go hand in hand. One of the biggest things I've noticed during this journey is all of the 'enemies' of peace that I encounter in my daily life. If I'm going to place peace in the position of importance and prioritize it the way I intend to, then inevitably some of the current habits in my life are going to be challenged. One big one is my 'need' to be right (but I might devote an entire post to this later on so won't go into my thoughts on that right now.) I'm also learning to recognize the stress levels that I allow myself to live under. Stress in its various forms is such a huge contributor to disease and for me I know that I must reduce some of the stress levels I experience if I want to live life at it's best. I know some physical stress is environmental and can't be avoided but what I'm more specifically referring to is emotional stress such as living in fear or anxiety about things that one has little or no control over. I'm sure there are many studies that have been conducted in regards to the effects of stress on the body which the reader can study in their spare time should they feel the urge. I guess because this is a somewhat 'subjective' blog on my personal experiences with learning to live in peace, I will aim to keep my writing relevant to my journey.

This is what I'm learning. Peace brings clarity. Fear brings confusion, and for me, a type of 'paralysis' when it comes to making good decisions. Fear-based decisions tend to beget more fear-based decisions. If I'm confronted with a difficult choice or decision, it's better to buy myself time and get the internal voices in my head to quiet down rather than charge into something motivated by urgency and later on end up regretting it. The Bible says 'let peace act as an umpire' (Col. 3:15 AMP) which to me says that any absence of peace should be a clear indicator that we've gotten off track somewhere. Unfortunately, I believe so many of us are used to living in some level of stress or chaos - internally and externally- that we wouldn't know how to get back to a place of peace even if we wanted to. What does peace even look/feel like and how do I get there and stay there? How do I break the old habit patterns that are 'grooved' into the neural pathways of my brain? How do I learn to recognise when I've deviated from the path of peace? I know this isn't an overnight 'makeover.' I've taken years to get to the place that I'm at now. Some thinking habits have been there since I was a child. Now I am slowly reprogramming my mind/heart to take new thought 'pathways.' I'm creating a new 'normal' and that is taking some time. Some days and weeks feel as though I'm moving at a snail's pace whereas others seem filled with breakthrough. This is definitely a journey... most likely one I will be on for the rest of my life. My desire is that as time passes and I look back, I will be able to see definite progress that I can use to encourage and pass on to others wanting to take similar steps in their own lives.