Inner Peace Always Lets You Know Where You Can Find It

It would be so much easier if my keys could speak. This way when I go looking for them in the morning they could tell me where they are.

“Hey, upstairs on the night table.” “On your desk under the utility bills”.

Yes, searching for things would be much easier if the things we were looking for told us exactly where to look. But even if they did, we’d still have to listen.

One of the more common items we collective search for is peace. Inner peace. Yet even though inner peace tells us exactly where it’s located, we often look everywhere else but inside in hopes of finding it.

My personal journey searching for my peace took me in many different external directions. It was a path of attainment and accomplishment. Of setting goals which certainly would get me the ever elusive peace I was looking for once my target had been Continue reading “Inner Peace Always Lets You Know Where You Can Find It” →

We Don’t Have To Settle For What We’ve Always Settled For

You can always tell if it’s one of his photos.

My friend Peter Pereira is a photographer. Actually, he is a highly regarded and respected award-winning photojournalist who can tell an entire story within the frame of a single image. Peter’s work appears locally as well as globally in some of the world’s most recognizable media. I’m getting quite good at looking at a photograph and knowing that he was the photographer without needing to read the photo credit.

One of Peter’s greatest gifts is his gift of perspective. While many photographers will shoot at what is right in front of them, Peter will find his own unique vantage point. He positions himself outside of what would be considered the conventional. Above looking down. Below looking up. To the left side. To the right side. He will use components and lines within an image to frame his subject and direct the viewer’s eyes deeper into the photo. By positioning himself in unconventional positions, his work demonstrates the true power of perspective, of being open to seeing things from a different view point.

Perspectives are of great significance. Perspectives are how we choose to see the world, each other, and our own self.

How we choose to see our own self significantly influences everything about our life. Our experiences, our relationships, our expectations, our opportunities.

Everything.

Our sense of self is rarely intentional. It usually just happens as we evolve and grow through life. It will be shaped by our environment and those within it, reinforced and strengthened as experiences and relationships continuously repeat themselves. It’s not something we notice, so it’s not something we tend to question.

But there is great power in questioning who it is you tell yourself you think you are.

We have the ability to see ourself from a different vantage point. To reframe our self image. If we choose to do so. Maybe the Continue reading “We Don’t Have To Settle For What We’ve Always Settled For” →

This Is Your Season To Bloom

The sound of leaf blowers and lawn mowers never makes for a good alarm clock. Usually I’m up before the sun, but sometimes my body tells me it needs to sleep and on the rare occasion when my schedule allows I’m more than happy to oblige. This was one of those days.

Spring certainly is in the air here in Massachusetts. Lawns and gardens once again become the priority of many. Rakes and shovels groom and till, spreaders spread seed and feed, wheel barrows of fresh mulch cover the colorless flower beds. Rejuvenation is in full swing.

What if we treated ourselves the same way?

A beautiful yard and garden doesn’t happen by accident. Time, money, and intention are poured into creating and maintaining the desired landscaping outcome. But how much time, money, and intention do we pour into creating and maintaining the desired outcomes of our lives?

A beautiful life doesn’t happen by accident. Like a beautiful yard it requires awareness, intention, and attention. Left unchecked, weeds grow in gardens and often within us, and if we don’t tend to those weeds the weeds eventually take over, draining the gardens – and us – of much of our inherent beauty.

While you’re raking and mulching and tending to the external world around you this spring, how much time and intention are you giving to the beautiful garden which rests dormant within you?

Weed yourself of those thoughts and habits which no longer serve you. Feed yourself with love and compassion, patience and Continue reading “This Is Your Season To Bloom” →

Blessed Are The Cheerleaders

The ones who stand on the sidelines of your life, and no matter the score they remind you that the scoreboard isn’t an indication of your worth or value. That no matter the score they will always remind you how much they believe in you, support you, and will push you a bit further because they do.

While we often associate cheerleading with high school and college sports, some of the most important cheerleading is done in our adult lives, when the inner score isn’t as obvious to those outside, when life’s challenges and burdens are often dealt with in silence, when the adult world somehow outgrows encouragement and support at the exact time that we honestly probably need it the most.

Encouragement and support have no age restrictions.

Blessed are the cheerleaders, the ones who care enough to ask, who know that at times we’re not strong enough to ask. Blessed Continue reading “Blessed Are The Cheerleaders” →

What Would God Change About You?

Nothing.

In a Universe of intention, we are all created purposefully and deliberately, each of us a unique collection of talents, gifts, and abilities here to fully express the intention inherent with our creation.

Sometimes we forget that part.

Sometimes the inner and outer voices would have us believe a different story, the one in which we’re not good enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, or strong enough as we already are. We often feel a pressure to change, to abandon who we are in order to become something we inherently are not.

When we become something we are not, we abandon those things that make us the beautiful, never to be repeated, once in Continue reading “What Would God Change About You?” →

Maybe It’s Time To Stop Eating Burnt Toast?

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” Thich Nhat Hanh

We really are creatures of habit, aren’t we? Even if those habits are somewhat detrimental to our well being. Even if those habits prevent us from growing more fully into who it is we know we were created to become.

Habits are familiar. They become part of our identity. What is known and accepted comes with it’s own sense of predictability which creates a sense of safety, even if that safety feels uncomfortable and often empty.

But, for some, it’s better than the fear inherent with what’s unknown.

Burnt toast isn’t ideal, but if it’s all you’ve known, it’s just easier to simply settle and keep eating it, even if better options are readily available.

I’ve had my share of life’s burnt toast. Of settling for less than in the presence of abundant alternatives. The acceptance of my Continue reading “Maybe It’s Time To Stop Eating Burnt Toast?” →

A Fully Lived Life Is Much Better

I’m not sure how much I’ve spent on books. I’ve got lots of them. Bookcases full of them. Many inspiring and informative books filled with great insights and ideas. Many of those books I’ve started and, well, not quite finished. Usually because I found yet another book which caught my distracted eye.

Audiobooks and podcasts? Yup, I enjoy plenty of those as well.

Sometimes I feel like a collector of wisdom, a curator of knowledge, especially in the area of personal growth. Like I’m creating a library of incredible knowledge with the power to change the trajectory of my life.

If I actually did more than simply collect and consume information.

Collecting knowledge feels like you’re doing something. Like, you’re making progress, getting yourself prepared to someday Continue reading “A Fully Lived Life Is Much Better” →

The Paradox Of Hating The Things You Love To Do

It’s not as glamorous as you may think, getting up at 4:30 AM. But I’m trying to convince myself that I’m a runner, and runners run. For me, the most consistently convenient time to run starts, unfortunately, at 4:30 AM.

Get up. Stretch what needs to be stretched. Get dressed. Reflective outer layer and a headlamp strapped to my head.

As a runner, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not that good at running, even though I’ve been doing it for several years. I’m slow, I fatigue easily, and I know I will be sore enough to last me for the next two days.

One thing I’ve become quite good at, though, is showing up.

Running is more about my relationship with myself. About the commitments I make to myself and my willingness to keep them. Continue reading “The Paradox Of Hating The Things You Love To Do” →

The Surprising Benefits Of Staring At The Sun

Cranes from dollar bills. Flowers from straw wrappers. Give my daughter something to fold and she probably will. It’s quite a joy watching her create something beautiful from something ordinary.

My origami skills, I’m afraid, leave a great deal to be desired. Although I do feel like I’ve been the one who has been folded.

Life has a way of doing that to us, it’s own version of origami, often folding us without us even being aware we’re being folded. Folded by the critical comments, unhealthy actions, and toxic opinions of others, especially in the formative years of our own self identity. Such folding impacts our experience and expectations, time often turning those folds into deep creases, continuously pressed even deeper into our psyche, reinforcing who it is we tell ourselves we are.

I’ve been folded and contorted into neither a crane nor a flower. I am just me, my final shape yet to be clearly defined. But folding is always a part of our evolution.

My journey into better understanding life and, in particular, my life has been a meandering maze of diving more deeply into me. Yes, I’ve been folded and molded and shaped into who I am today. But is who I am today who I was actually created to be? Like, are the labels and traditions and limitations I’ve accepted as true not actually the truth inherent with my creation?

Questioning something as significant as your identity involves a process of self awareness and examination. Sort of origami in Continue reading “The Surprising Benefits Of Staring At The Sun” →

The Healthy Discomfort of Personal Accountability

Waiting.

For the world to change. For the right time. For someone to share the experience with.

Waiting for what is to be something other than it actually was.

I was an experienced waiter. Over the decades I could find a great many reasons why waiting was better than actually doing. My ever-expanding list of things I told myself I wanted to experience was, well, ever expanding. Talking about climbing a mountain was always easier than actually doing so. Especially when you’re quite adept at “justifying” your own personal stagnation.

“Someday” became quite comfortable.

At some point I grew tired of my own BS. I grew tired of my own voice telling me “someday”. I finally challenged myself to Continue reading “The Healthy Discomfort of Personal Accountability” →

Peter Mis LivingHalfFull.com

Lessons From A Life Unfolding