What creates inner peace? Aug19 '07

I'm always in search of balance in my life - filtering out the good from the bad - the stress from the joy. I'm beginning to wonder how physical and mental forces interact to produce either agitation and anguish, or relaxation and inner peace.

As we get older, our lives become more hectic, as we surround ourselves with work, family, and personal issues that never seem to go away. Our inner spirits become deflated easily.

"Complete relaxation" is a foreign phrase to most individuals living in this high-tech, "always on" society, where it's hard to get away from the office, since the office is no longer a single location. These days, we carry our "work" with us everywhere. More specifically, it's our burdens that never float away.

We take vacations or long weekends, and somehow go back to the office more agitated than before we left.

Activities expected to re-energize and re-charge the mind often fall short. After all, you can be physically sedentary and still stressed out. It seems that true "inner peace" is a combination of both physical and mental relaxation. A sense of well-being; a higher purpose.

So what is it specifically that creates "inner peace?"

Is it movies, video games, or hanging out with friends?

Perhaps it's religion, and attending mass each week - believing in something "bigger" than our daily tribulations.

Maybe it's love, and being with that special person.

Perhaps work itself is what relaxes us. Or... the absence of work.

Maybe it's simply getting away from our technical "gadgets" that always have our attention: computers, cell phones, etc.

Perhaps it's exercise, or extra-curricular activities, such as joining common-interest groups and exploring your creative side.

How about reflection and self-expression?

Maybe it's going out and getting drunk.

Sleep?

I'm not sure that any of these activities or ideals are enough to coerce the mind and body into complete relaxation. Each person is different. What works one time may not work every time. Perhaps it's a mixture of everything. I don't know.

I'm never going to stop searching though. Searching for that one thing, or group of things, that relaxes me, and provides inner peace.

And maybe that is my answer. It's the quest for inner peace that ultimately creates inner peace.

Categories: Life , Personal , Philosophy

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matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.