How to Come to Peace with any Situation

Life happens.

Sometimes we might enjoy the way life is unfolding, other times it might feel challenging, painful and overwhelming.

The truth is that we cannot control what is happening in the world around us, yet we do have the power to find peace with life in our inner world.  Paradoxically, when we come to peace inside, our energy shifts and we may find we are attracting different types of situations to our outer world. But even if nothing changes on the outer, peace on the inner will make life more pleasant and fulfilling.

In a world where change is the only constant, coming to peace requires a certain ability to go with the flow, to allow life to be as it is.  It requires a certain surrender to the notion that try as we like, we don’t always get to have things how we want them and when we want them, which is usually “right now, thank you very much.”

So what is peace?  Peace is a spiritual frequency that we can tune in to at any moment. It’s like a color or a sound.  The color “red” or the note “G” are always vibrating on their individual frequencies whether we are currently experiencing them in our outer world or not. If we want to manifest them, we can use a medium or an instrument to bring them forth, like paint or a piano. When it comes to spiritual frequencies like peace, we become their instrument of expression on earth.

As human beings we have the capacity to sound the notes of the spiritual worlds, notes like peace, love, and compassion. Much like a properly tuned piano is designed to generate clear pure sounds, we are designed to generate the pure, clear energy of the Divine. We are built that way. Yet life’s challenges can cause us to get out of warped and out of tune. Tuning ourselves to the frequency of peace can help bring us back in balance.

Here are some practices to help you come to peace.

1.  Accept what’s happening. Breathe into your feelings about the situation and allow them to be as they are. Often we may feel frustration, bitterness, anger or rage about a situation. Judging these feelings or expressing them to the other tends to cause more challenges. Repressing them will create problems as well. Find a way to allow them to move through you. Feel them and acknowledge them for yourself, then let them go. From this state of acceptance, your energy will relax and the next step will become clearer.

2.  Do what you can. If action is possible take it, yet do your best to stay relaxed about the outcome. Let go of the “need” for success; yet remain open to the “possibility” of it.

If action isn’t possible, don’t dwell on the situation. Remain vigilant with your thoughts, if you find yourself running the situation over and over in your mind, stop, breathe into your heart and move into acceptance with the feelings you find there.

Sometimes action happens through non-action.  It’s like being caught in an ocean current. The best way to come to the surface is to stop fighting and let the current carry you to the top.

3. Forgive yourself if you know what to do, but can’t make yourself do it. Sometimes we are incapable of taking the action that will help us. Beating yourself up for this will only make matters worse. If you know what to do but don’t have the capacity to do it, practice step one. Call in your heart. Find compassion for yourself. Give yourself a hug.  With time, this practice of self-forgiveness and self-love may open the door to the energy needed for change.

4.  Look for any lessons you are meant to learn. Often life’s most difficult situations can be used as teachers on the road to compassion, love and peace.

5.  Remain open to opportunity and change. By practicing relaxation and acceptance, you become more present to the moment, and the moment births both peace and possibilities.