Occasionally things may build up. Life quickly can become super-complex. Events can seem to get out of hand.

How to deal with it? How to respond? One answer is simply to choose peace.

Sounds too simple? Too New Age? Yeah, I agree, it does. But at some level and to some extent it can work. When I’m stressed or feeling on the edge of overwhelmed, I’m willing to look inside and ask myself some tough questions, even if I don’t always like the answers.

Is this possession worth the trouble? Is it bringing me the joy, happiness, satisfaction, or fulfillment I anticipated?

Is this relationship/friendship/involvement truly supporting me? Has it run its course? Does it have future potential? Or am I in it out of habit, fear, inertia, or lack of awareness?

Is what I’m doing bringing me peace of mind? Or frustration? Am I doing what I truly love? Which may not always be what I’m best at?

These are effective questions because they do not presuppose answers, rather they invite the listener to search for answers, leaving the path of inquiry open.

Peace, internal peace, is not an external place but a chosen state of mind.

Anyone can be peaceful in a peaceful situation, in a place without noise, trouble, deadlines, or hard work to be done. The highest level of Zen, of personal and professional growth, is to be peaceful amidst the hustle and bustle of the world, to be peaceful even when peace is not around you, to be peaceful under stress, under deadline, under duress.

I’m not there yet, a long way from it. But I am closer than I was last year and I plan to be closer next year. I wish to attract the change I wish to come to the world. I cannot strive for peace, but I do believe I can create a place, a frame of mind, a pattern of thinking, knowing, believing, and behaving that will allow peace to come and dwell within me.

As always, I share what I most want to learn.