You Can’t Wish World Peace into Existence
When I was twelve years old, every night at 11:11 pm I would make a wish for a boyfriend and world peace. The boyfriend would take a few more years. I’m still waiting on world peace.
I don’t know how I thought world peace would arrive. Maybe I thought, like you, that one day all the world leaders would come to an agreement to end all wars, oppression and violence, despite several millennia of historical evidence to the contrary.
World peace is not going to ride in on a horse one day waving a white flag and leaving a wake of peace trailing behind it. Nor can we rely on the rich and powerful to turn over a new leaf, denounce material wealth and oppressive control. They are not going to suddenly step down and form a non-hierarchical society, hold hands in a circle and sing kumbaya.
World Peace Comes from Within
You know you want world peace, but have you considered how it’s going to happen? Are you waiting for someone else to figure it out? Maybe you never really thought about it before.
Here’s the hard truth: world peace begins with you. World peace is only going to occur when the majority of people in the world are peaceful. People are going to be peaceful by finding their inner peace. Since we can’t immediately change the chaos of our modern world, peace must come from within outward, not the other way around.
“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” –Mahatma Ghandi
Inner Peace is Contagious
The good news is that inner peace has the beautiful effect of spreading rapidly and exponentially. Think about someone in your life who is peaceful. No matter what chaos occurs on the outside, this person holds steady. They approach every situation with calm and fortitude. They don’t complain or commiserate. They don’t fixate on the most horrible current event in the news. They are collected. But they are not cold. They emanate warmth and caring. They laugh easily. They are honest.
Consider how you enjoy being around this person. Recall how when you are near to them, you also feel at peace. They relax and ground you. That’s because inner peace spreads. It’s contagious. When you are surrounded by peaceful people not only do you feel peaceful, but you want to be peaceful like them as well. They model another way of being.
Additionally, you get into an energetic coherence with people around you. Your nervous system, emotions, and heart rhythms can synchronize with others. Studies show that when people interact, their physiology can synchronize heart rate, heart rate variability, facial expressions, and even brain activity can subtly lock into similar rhythms. So, just being around peaceful people can bring peace to others.
For more examples of inner peace, consider a mountain, tree or ocean. The mountain remains solid and still, even as the storm circles overhead. The tree sways with the strong winds but remains rooted to the ground. The ocean waves break overhead but in the depth of the sea there is eternal peace and quiet.
Inner Peace Takes Work
Inner peace requires work. It’s not easy in a world full of challenges, struggles, and chaos. But you have overcome obstacles before. Remember a time that you overcome an obstacle-- illness, loss, transition, heartbreak, etc. How did you do it? You may have asked for help or been blessed with external support but ultimately your resilience and ability to overcome came from within you. You had to find it within yourself to make peace with the situation. Otherwise, you never move on, you never overcome. What did it feel like to meet this challenge and overcome it? What characteristics did you need to do so? Bravery, faith, forgiveness, patience, surrender, calm? This answer might hold your recipe for inner peace.
In other words, you’ve done it before, you can do it again. And when you learn how to cultivate inner peace, each new struggle becomes easier to overcome because you have the tools, you’ve practiced for this.
This might be a hard pill to swallow, but you can welcome every struggle as an opportunity to cultivate inner peace. Every time you are faced with a new obstacle instead of feeling like a victim of circumstance and wallowing in woe, take a moment to collect yourself and find inner peace. Finding inner peace when life is going swell is one thing, but to do it when you are in the thick of tension, is a master class.
“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.” —Yoga Sutras
Inner Peace Feels Great and is Worth the Work
So, finding inner peace and spreading it around to the people you come into contact with who can spread it around to others is a recipe for world peace, but it also feels great. Existing in the world in a state of equanimity means that your ego is not triggered by every little thing. The words that might have offended you before don’t bother you anymore. Even when you read the news, you can see the full picture of what is playing out and not get caught up in the drama. When you have inner peace, you are witness to the world. You are watching this great play of life unfold before you and though you are participating, you don’t have to react.
“Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.” --Ram Dass
Additionally, through practice, you learn to lasso your thoughts, and you become more present in the moment. Your thoughts are no longer wandering mindlessly into regurgitating the past or jumping ahead worrying into the future. In the present, the world is a beautiful place. You can think and act spontaneously in the moment rather than based on fear, old stories, programming or past experiences. You are able to better appreciate what you have right now with a deep feeling of contentedness.
When you no longer need external validation because you discover that everything you need resides peacefully within you, you feel compassion towards yourself and others. Characteristics of greed, jealousy, dishonesty, scarcity, fear, domination and the such begin to fade away. Imagine all the people living in this peace.
If you are really committed to world peace and inner peace, then you must start by setting the intention to seek it out every chance you get. Not just to consider it sometimes when it is convenient for you but to truly devote yourself to the practice and lifestyle of cultivating inner peace. Say it out loud. Tell your friends and family. Make yourself accountable. Get a little obsessed.
Ways to cultivate inner peace
Find peaceful people to be around. Search them out, ask around. Visit places they may likely be such as temples, ashrams, yoga studios, nature-based activities, etc. Spend more time with people in your life who are peaceful or cultivating peace (and maybe less time with people who are not.)
Meditation is the most direct but not always the easiest path to inner peace. Because meditation allows us to quiet the mind and witness our thoughts, we learn to enhance the witness mind that can objectively view the world and in time learn to not react from our ego mind. As Swami Sivananda Saraswati says, “Fewer the thoughts, greater the peace.” But meditation can look different for everyone, so don’t assume it means sitting on a pillow and chanting Om, though that is my preferred method. There is walking meditation, singing meditation, dancing meditation, guided meditation, and more. Research and find one that works for you.
Yoga, tai chi, qi gong and the like are all moving meditations that allow you to practice being present in the moment.
Practice mindfulness. Watch your thoughts and emotions throughout the day. Notice your reactions. Notice when you are unable to accept the moment just as it is, when you get angry, triggered, agitated or start to complain. Take this opportunity to relax, reset and find acceptance with what is, perhaps even appreciation for what you are being taught about yourself. Even if you do react, this is progress for noticing, so don’t be hard on yourself. Next time you will take a deep breath and surrender instead.
When you feel activated, practice nervous system regulation techniques such as shaking, singing, chanting, and deep breathing.
Time in nature calms the nervous system and allows you to deepen into a peaceful state. Relax without rushing and allow the natural world to bring you peace. Meditating in nature is all the better. Visit green spaces as much as possible. Try a sit spot practice.
Eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep and take your vitamins. Rest often. When you are feeling good in your body, it is easier to feel good in your whole being.
Create what is called in yoga a sattvic environment. Sattva means a state of harmony and balance. So besides healthy foods, exercise, good attitudes and meditation, you can also create spaces that feel harmonious. This may include, uplifting or calming music, pleasing scents, uncluttered tabletops, beautiful art, plants or whatever you consider harmonious in your home.
Selfless service, or karma yoga, is a way to step away from yourself as the center of the universe and begin centering others. In the act of selfless service that is truly selfless and not as a way to make yourself feel good or stroke your own ego, you give your full effort without concern for the results. Acting in service of the greater good and making offerings to something greater than yourself, relaxes your ego, reduces selfishness and creates a peaceful state.
Be careful of what you watch. When we are watching television or the news or scrolling on social media, our mind enters a relaxed hypnogogic alpha brain state where images, sounds and ideas can enter your subconscious and affect your nervous system. I like a good thriller as much as most, but I am aware that it shifts my body out of peaceful mode and into a more excited state. Same for the news. Being aware of this, helps me to be more discerning about what is worth watching and disrupting my peace of mind.
Read books and listen to podcasts about finding inner peace to stay inspired, such as:
Be Here Now – Ram Dass
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
The Untethered Soul – Michael A. Singer
Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramahansa Yogananda
Peace is Every Step – Thich Nhat Hanh
True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart - Tara Brach
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
Breath: Wake up to Life - Prem Rawat
A Return to Love - Marianne Williamson
The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book - don Miguel Ruiz
Add your books and podcast suggestions that I missed in the comments:
Yes, yes, YES!! I, too have heard the criticism of not being angry at what is going on all around us. Not only is peace contagious but so is joy, serenity, and seeing what is good both in the world and with each other. And yes, meditation is different for everyone .... for me, simply sitting under an inky sky - or even by a window - with the stars allows all that is to sit with(and in) me. Thank you, Johanna, very much appreciate this piece. (and please give my love to the Mesa and the Mountain! 💖)