When I talk about my value of “Peace,” I’m talking about peace of mind. Peace is a state where our minds are at ease, quiet, and free of worry. In this state we are at peace with ourselves and others.  It is a quiet bliss that is stress-free and relaxing.

Having peace of mind means that you are living in the minute. You’re not dwelling on what happened in the past or worrying about what’s going to happen in the future. You are living right now, right where you are. Ninety-nine percent of the time there is no immediate life-threatening event happening in your life so you can take a few seconds to find that peace.

Several years ago when I first started practicing living in the moment, I did it for about 17 seconds at a time. I don’t know how or why I decided to try for that amount of time; somehow it just seemed right. Now I don’t do it for any specific length, but I try to do it often.

What I do is concentrate on what was happening around me: My walls are off-white, the curtains are blowing, I hear a truck drive by. I focus my attention on my surroundings and the seconds I count off in my head. If a thought of the past or future enters my head, I simple shift my focus back to my environment and the counting.

It’s a form of meditation. As a young man I studied Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM consists of sitting in a quiet place and mentally repeating a mantra. The mantra is a meaningless word like “om” or “ah-ing;” it’s just a device that you can focus your mind on. Living in the moment is the same; you can concentrate on a mantra, counting, or just the sights and sounds around you for a brief moment.

Another way I attract Peace into my life is by focus on an imaginary ball of energy in the palm of my hand. It’s like a mini-sun that I am completely in control of.  I can control its shape,  size, and movement. I picture my Peace ball as being green in color. Sometimes I imagine a peaceful place in nature inside my green ball of energy.

As I focus on this ball of energy I feel the peace inside me. I feel the emotion of Peace. If you can’t put your mind in a meditative state like above, try imagining the feeling the emotion as if you possessed it. Imagine that you are a meditative, peaceful person. What does that feel like? Focusing on the ball of energy and that emotion attracts Peace into your life.

Peace is not just some hippy, New Age, or occult notion. Peace of mind is a composite of Emotional Intelligence skills that are necessary for a successful life. It is a scientific fact that successful people are able to achieve Peace in their lives.

Peace is made up of these Emotional Intelligence skills: Self-Regard, Self-Actualization, Optimism, Emotional Self-Awareness, Flexibility, and Stress Tolerance.

Self-Regard is accepting yourself for who you are, respecting yourself, and being confident in who you are. You are not egotistic, but confident and comfortable being yourself.

Self-Actualization means that you are doing what you want to do. It may not be you idea situation, but you have accepted it as necessary for the time being. Ideally you want to be doing what you really want to do, what you’re passionate about. You want to follow your bliss. But we can’t always have our way; in the meantime we are at a peace with our current situation and our current efforts.

Another Emotional Intelligence skill that composes Peace is Optimism. Optimism is synonymous with “faith” or “hope.” You have the expectation that the future will be better. You know that it will be better. You believe that things will be better.

Optimists are able to see the brighter side of life. Studies have found that Optimists and Pessimists have the same number of negative thoughts during the day. The difference is that Optimists are able to stop the negative thoughts from spreading and replace them with positive thoughts. It takes some creativity to come up with positive thoughts in the midst of an onslaught of negative ones. Be aware of your thoughts, catch yourself when you’re having negative thoughts, stop the negative thoughts and find positive things to think about.

Emotional Self Awareness is yet another Emotional Intelligence skill necessary to achieve Peace. Emotional Self-Awareness is the ability to recognize and distinguish between your emotions. Knowing your emotions is necessary to controlling your emotions. For peace of mind you need to keep your emotions in check; you need to be an emotionally detached observer; you have to be emotionally neutral.

The Emotional Intelligence skill of Flexibility is also needed. If we are flexible we can go with the flow of life. We adjust to the immediate situation of our lives. If we are rigid in our lives and beliefs, we drown in a quagmire of “shoulds,” “have tos,” and “ought tos.”  We “should” worry about the future. We “have to” stick to the plan. We “ought to” follow the rules. To live in the peace we have to let go of these things, if only for the moment.

Lastly, we need the Emotional Intelligence skill of Stress Tolerance to achieve Peace in our lives. Stress Tolerance is the ability to deal with the pressures of daily life. Preventive measures like exercise and eating healthy help us to deal with stress. Techniques like living in the moment, meditation, and focusing on a ball of energy help us to deal with stress so that we can find Peace.

So as you can see, Peace is a big component of our Emotional Intelligence. We attract this value into our lives by living in the moment or by focusing on the emotional energy of Peace. With Peace in our lives we are actively achieving success in our lives. 




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