In a world that champions haste over patience, force over compassion and power over goodwill, the term “Inner Peace” can turn some people away.

Which has always been ironic to me, considering Inner Peace is the most powerful tool someone can have – one that enables us to master not only ourselves, but the world around us.

The person who walks into a room equipped with Inner Peace is the person who has the most control, clarity, and awareness. Their Inner Peace gives them the Outer Power to influence the situation and everyone within it.

What is Inner Peace?

Inner Peace is a consistent state of consciousness during which we are fully aware of our thoughts and emotions and how they might be shaping our perception of the world around us.

More than that – we are aware that we are aware of it.

We are able to take a step back, objectively survey all the elements of a situation and come to a conclusion that is free from ego, bias, judgment, criticism or misinterpretation.

Inner Peace allows us to disarm ourselves from our frustrations, anger, fear and insecurities that might otherwise mar our decisions. It frees us up, so we become present to what is happening both inside and outside ourselves and the ripple effect and impact our thoughts, words and deeds have both internally and externally.

Life: With and Without Inner Peace

Without inner peace, we are at the mercy of our untamed thoughts and feelings.

We become captives of an inner war that we fail to realise is waging – and we cast its gloomy outlook – its insecurities, fears and distrust – upon the world.

Thus, we distort the happenings around us to be far worse than they really are – and we react accordingly. We react from a place of ego, which is exclusively concerned with the survival of the fittest, competition and looking good along the way.

With Inner Peace, we gain the ability to thrive in all conditions. We stop turning outside ourselves for solutions; we cease the hunt for the scapegoat, we stop shooting the messenger.

Instead, we pause. And in that pause we turn our attention quietly inside, tuning into our inner atmosphere; our intuition, for answers. We take responsibility for the situation we’re in, we stop blaming others. We unlock a compartment of insight, compassion and solidarity that casts itself over the situation, allowing us to creatively respond in an effective and rightful way… a way that we look back upon with satisfaction and pride.

Why is Inner Peace so evasive? The Quicksand of Life

Imagine you were unfortunate enough to stumble into some quicksand.

There’s a glorious jungle all around you, teeming with vibrant fauna and beautiful birds of paradise.

But you can’t notice any of this surrounding beauty, because you’re stuck in this pile of quicksand.

You’re not thinking to yourself, “My, what a beautiful jungle!” You’re probably thinking something that contains significantly more expletives.

You’re so entrenched in the sinking weight of the sand you’re engulfed in, that you can’t stop, take a step back, observe and think of and appreciate the world around you – that this is really quite a beautiful jungle, you just happen to be caught in the sand.

In life, it’s easy to focus on the “bad” things around us that are weighing us down.

Sometimes, we even let the “bad” consume us. We find ourselves unable to step back and see how our feelings, position and even our past might shape how we perceive and therefore react to, our current predicament.

I write “bad” in quotation marks, because as your self-awareness increases, your Inner Peace permeates throughout your life and your perception of the events, people and circumstances of your life begin to shift altogether… herein lies your transformation.

“Bad” is just a perception, it’s the meaning you’ve given your predicament. Shift your perception; give it a new meaning… transform your outcome.

With a sense of inner calm the solutions you create for your predicament will be of a much higher quality, effectiveness and efficiency. Let’s be honest here, with increased self-awareness and a fine-tuned intuition, you are much more likely not to have even found yourself in the quicksand in the first place.

Inner Peace gives us the ability to look inside and understand why we’re feeling, perceiving and acting this way. It gives us a deeper awareness, stillness, an inner power, which then permeates through our thoughts, actions and perceptions. From this space we’re able to choose to respond in a different manner, even to creatively come up with solutions, rather than react in our usual form when we allow someone or a situation to press our buttons.

How can we find it?

The question has been posed throughout mankind, from ancient philosophers and religious deities to modern day scientists, spiritualists and visionaries.

This means that, you guessed it; there is no single, concrete answer.

Inner Peace is not a one-size-fits-all recipe that can be transcribed, passed and duplicated. It’s a deeply personal, adaptive, unending, exciting, expansive journey… a way of life.

And this is what people find so frustrating; this is why inner peace seems so elusive. It is not a light bulb moment to be achieved from reading a book, attending a seminar, or adhering to a religion. It’s a commitment to you. It’s a simple commitment, a simple choice, a simple path… yet in the high-stress of the modern world, it’s not always easy to remember.

The external world can help you, but it cannot do the work for you. I can give you the tools, the teachings, the support, the guidance, the encouragement you need to unlock your Inner Peace. I can teach you how to make Peace your Captain and Happiness your Ship and show you how to navigate life in awe and wonder of the experiences that pass you by.

Only you, however, can choose to apply the tools, using them to study, understand and improve upon your inner world– and choose to make it one governed by Inner Peace.