Finding ones inner peace during turbulent times is said to be an easy task for people who are enlightened or living in the now. Easy because not only can they see the lesson underlying the turbulence in their life, but also know that it is apart of the positive and negative feedback loops we experience. Yet, what does it mean to be enlightened or fully present? Is it when your mind is not drifting between the past and future? Or When you see that a lot of the drama and issues are mental stories made up to keep you aligned with living a certain way.

Unfortunately, I do not have the answers to all these questions, since we all have our definitions for enlightenment as well as inner peace. Yet, I have a theory. One that has alleviated a lot of anxiety, and drama in my life, which will hopefully do the same for you it revolves around one key concept embracing life as it is.

Embracing

To embrace means “to willingly accept something”, yet for this post, it means to offer no resistance. By offering no resistance, we can relinquish the need to give energy to something that doesn’t need it. Furthermore, remove the need to create stories in our head or be reactive. For those who don’t remember, we manifest stories as a way to cope with the conditions we encounter daily. For example, when a person cuts us in front of us, our mind brings up thoughts and emotions instead of seeing the encounter for what it is. Someone cut in front of us that’s it that’s all. Society encourages us to resist seeing the things this way because it means straying away from being run by our mental or emotional states rather than letting life flow.

School and work culture amplify these tendencies as a way of pitting people against one another to create unnecessary divisions. All to aid in the never-ending cycle of resisting the natural flow of life. Not to mention, the creation of useless stress, anxiety and even self-hatred.

However, by embracing situations as they unfold and accepting them for what they are rather than what we want them to be. We open the door to a more peaceful life, one without resistance.

A few ways to live without resistance is to be ok with not being ok, stop reacting to other peoples life situations and focus on the tasks at hand. Life isn’t a picnic or a smooth journey, there are highs, lows, pain and bumps, but all of these are fuel for freedom as well as peace. As long as we embrace them, learn from them, then move on.

In embracing life, we enter a form of presence or enlightenment because there is no clinging to conditions. Furthermore, there is no need to identify with the past or a story based future since they both require some resistance to the present. If this is not a step toward inner peace, then feel free to share a step out of your journey.