A Life of Peacefulness
By Leo Babauta
Most of us want a greater sense of peace and ease in our lives — life can be stressful, chaotic, overwhelming, full of distractions, exhausting.
We want to get away from all of that, exit the madness, and get to a place of greater peace.
I’m going to share how to find that life of peacefulness in one simple method. In a minute.
First let’s look at the biggest mistake we make: trying to escape the stress and chaos.
To escape the chaos, we do a lot of things:
Try to get our world in order, trying to control everything
Distract ourselves, because it’s all too much
Comfort ourselves from the stress, with TV, food, drink, drugs, social media
Hide from all the things we do, try not to think about it all
Complain about it, about the burden of it all
End a relationship, an arrangement, a commitment, because you don’t want to feel bad anymore
Stress out, rush, constantly feel busy
You might recognize some of your reactions to stress and chaos in this list, or maybe you have other strategies. But in the end, it’s all about trying to escape, to exit, a desire to get away from it all and get a sense of peace.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to get away from difficulty or pain. If you’re in true danger or abuse, get out. But most of the time, it might be a path of growth to not exit. To stay, to face the stress and chaos with a sense of bravery. And then to find peace in the middle of the chaos.
You can create a life of peacefulness in the middle of this overwhelming, stressful, busy, chaotic world. If you don’t run, but instead find the fearlessness to be with it fully.
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https://zenhabits.net/peacefulness/