Your peace is within.

For years I have been told that in order to slow my mind down, I need to meditate.  Sounds easy enough, right?  I have tried sitting still in silence, listening to guided meditations and moving through yoga.  Nope....nothing.  I found I ended up putting so much pressure around what a "meditation practice" should look like that I was missing the entire point of why I was doing it in the first place.  My amazing Reiki teacher talked to me about this one day and said that it doesn't need to be perfect.  It can be anything that allows you to breathe and relax.  Okay, there must be something I can do.

And then I found them- two things that work like magic for me!  The first is colouring.  I have written and shown some of my colouring projects in one of my earlier blogs and to this day, I still sit with a colouring book when I really need to relax and "zone out".  Time passes when I am doing this and I find that I am no longer worrying about the tasks in my day or what I need to do next.  I am able to just sit and be creative. 

The second is walking in nature, and this is probably my favorite.  I am typically walking with my dog Bo and nothing gets me out of my own head faster than being surrounded by nature.  Something about the massive trees blowing in the wind, the long grass, the flowers and bushes, the animals running around and the amazing songs of the birds flying by.  To add to all of those incredible sounds, I am usually talking out loud.  Although I'm sure my neighbours think I'm a bit crazy (which I'm good with), this is my way of sorting out my thoughts while being completely calm.

When I saw this photo, it showed me without the use of any words, the kind of tranquility that is possible.  The simple act of sitting in water, shutting our eyes and breathing is all we really need to do to find our own internal peace.