Inner peace is a deep human need, just like air, water, love, and sunshine. The trouble is that even though we want it, we live as though we can do without it because we can still survive physically even when we are in serious states of chronic stress.

But inner peace does not show up automatically, just like food on our plate will not show up unless we do something about it. So it’s important to think carefully about what we can do to create this much-needed experience for ourselves.

Firstly, let’s dispel some of the myths about inner peace, so we can focus on how to make peace a regular experience in our lives.

Have you noticed how much turmoil our world is in right now? Although you may not be directly affected by this, you can still be energetically affected nonetheless. In the same way that we all share the same physical atmosphere of air to breathe, we likewise share a global atmosphere of energy and consciousness.

For this reason, it is so important that you create some space for yourself that holds a sense of peace for you, within that larger global atmosphere. It’s important to feel some sense of command over the energetic atmosphere that you personally live within.

The reason this matters is because if you don’t provide yourself with that space, you may find yourself experiencing symptoms of stress that come with your deeper self sensing all of this turmoil. Your intuitive self will feel it, even if your conscious mind doesn’t know what it’s all about.

One of the most important things we can do for ourselves is daily meditation. Meditation is when we set aside sacred time to fill our hearts and feed our souls. It’s also the best way to get centered with a clear mind before we start our day. But before we discuss the “how” of meditation, let’s discuss the “why”.

The way that you start your day will dramatically affect the way that your day turns out. If you start the day in a frantic, rushed, unconscious manner, the rest of your day can unfold in an equally stressful way.

On the other hand, if you start your day in a calm, centered fashion, you are much more likely to be able to maintain that center throughout the day.

Think of it this way. When you get up in the morning, you set up a trajectory of consciousness, based on your state of mind. Your energy, thoughts, and emotions are likely to follow that trajectory. It’s like throwing a ball. Wherever you aim the ball when you exert that energy, the ball will definitely follow that path.

As human beings, we naturally strive to improve ourselves and our world. However our efforts can often seem fragmented and confusing, even to ourselves. We tend to look at everything as the sum of the parts. In other words, we believe that if we can assemble enough good efforts, it will eventually add up to a positive personal change or a change in our world.

This often does not work out well because there are so many unexpected things that get in the way. In addition, we have certain habits that are not inclined to disappear easily. It is all too easy to become confused and want to give up. Let’s see if we can consolidate our efforts into a one-pointed focus of energy and receive far more powerful results.

We are fundamentally infinite beings of light. We are love at our core. This truth tends to get broken up as it is filtered through our fragmented perception of ourselves as separate individuals who experience limitation and incongruence in nearly every area of life. We tend to see ourselves as the sum of our many parts. Those parts may consist of our physical, mental, and emotional selves. They consist of our past, our perceived future, and what we believe everyone else thinks of us. They consist of what we think of ourselves.

These parts also consist of our accomplishments, our failures, our possessions, and our relationships. They consist of our likes and our dislikes. They consist of what we think about others, our judgements, our personal weaknesses, and our strengths. And then there are the countless smaller issues that branch off from each of these larger parts. No wonder life can be so confusing. It seems like it would take a master organizer to figure all of this out!

In order to pray effectively, you must first see yourself as a co-creator with the divine. So many people have been taught that they are helpless and that their only relationship with God is that of a beggar. Whether you hold that belief consciously or subconsciously, such a belief will dramatically influence how you perceive yourself in relationship to the infinite.

To begin with, it is important that you remember that you, too, are divine. If you separate yourself as one who is not divine, and then say that God is divine, then you are beginning your prayer with an erroneous assumption. God does not create anything unlike itself. God does not create anything that is not divine by nature. In other words, we are all made of the same thing: love and infinite worthiness.

When you acknowledge that you are as divine as the God that you pray to, you place yourself in the same ocean. The ocean of love and worthiness. Now you are positioned to make your request for help as a co-creator

These days it seems like the world can be an incredibly unstable place. It is so important not to let events that seem out of control completely take over our consciousness. This is a case where it is helpful for each of us to remember that we are individuals. There is so much that could be said here, but let me start with a paradigm shift. First of all, we are all infinite beings. That is not philosophy. It is indelible fact. We might be living in finite bodies, but each of us knows that we have no beginning and no end. This is, of course, why we naturally want to live forever. This is why we never run out of desire to go on and on and on with our lives.

So knowing this fact, it behooves us to take the truth of who we are into account when we find ourselves dealing with world events that seem to destabilize all of our lives. We stand on absolutely firm footing when we come from our infinite selves. We can take our physical lives into account by being completely centered in this fact. That is the place from which to start. If you doubt that you are an infinite being, you have only to be honest about your experience to know this for yourself. Look in the mirror. Look into your own eyes. Accept the fact that what you see there is eternal youth and eternal potentiality. There is simply no end to all of the things that you would love to do!

Let’s face it. The news media will never be the bearer of good news. Think of the news media as a basket that is delivered each day to your front door. It would be nice if that basket contained all sorts of lovely things to brighten your day, give you hope, and make you feel better, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead, that basket usually contains the equivalent of horrible things that are dark and dirty. It contains all the evidence that can be found of the absolute worst side of humanity. Yay! Isn’t that just what you wanted to know? Don’t you just wake up every morning excited to get out of bed, because you can’t wait to find out what horrible new things human beings have done to ruin themselves and the planet?

It is a well known fact that whatever occupies your thoughts contributes to how you see yourself and the world around you. In order to comprehend whatever you are reading or watching, it must enter your conscious experience, and therefore become a part of your thinking. Headlines in the news media generally scream for your attention. Those headlines beg you to open the articles and read or watch every horrible detail that can be presented. Because the news cycle is 24/7, those details and images will be repeated over and over again. If you continue to take them in, they will eventually fill your mind, leaving no room for beautiful ideas. The fear and anxiety generated by all the bad news can overwhelm your thinking, and thereby create a negative filter through which you may then view your entire life.

The world is obviously a very unstable place. Most of the events are out of the control of any one individual. If we position ourselves to require that such world events are stabilized, in order for us to feel stable as individuals, we could have a long wait indeed. So rather than being overwhelmed by such events, why don’t we take a different approach that empowers us right now?