Why People Hold Back From Peace

Throughout history man has asked the question of how to create peace on Earth. Even though people tend to differ in the ways they think about peace, we all intuitively now know that war is not the answer. We see that leaving responsibility to other people is not the answer either. We are finally coming to terms that we are the ones who need to take a new level of responsibility.

Many people have turned to exploring what would happen if we turned our focus to taking 100% responsibility for ending the war within ourselves? What if we take full responsibility for how we create war inside ourselves? What if we admit that war is our reflection? What if we admit that we often control and try to get rid of parts of ourselves? What if we make better choices about how we think, feel and behave?

Years ago at a Peace Conference, a presentation was added called “Why People Hold Back From Peace.” Most people looked at the title with a surprised look on their face. Soon they smiled and said, “I get it, we all need to address this!”

Think about it…

We often find ourselves struggling with questions like, “How can I find peace inside when I am holding on to guilt? How can I feel at peace with so many bad people in the world? How can I find peace when I find myself being judgmental, hateful and discrimatory?

We learn that what we try to get rid of comes around again in some other form and place. A good example is our country sending drones to bomb other people, only to see more and more mass shootings crop up in our own country. Trying to get rid of people is not the answer. What we resist persists, right?

Many people have turned to exploring what would happen if we turned our focus to taking 100% responsibility for ending the war within ourselves? What if we take full responsibility for how we create war within ourselves? What if we acknowledge that the war is our reflection? What if we stop trying to control and get rid of parts of ourselves?

THE GOOD NEWS IS: Resolution begins with making a decision about how we treat and relate with ourselves.  A great way to explore what it means to relate within ourselves starts by sitting on a pillow. Then place three other pillows in front of that one. Each pillow represents a different aspect of ourselves. One is ourselves as a spirit. The other three pillows are representing our bodies, emotions and hearts. The idea is to start a conversation allowing each aspect of ourselves to speak and express their experience of being part of us.

How this exercise works is demonstrated as follows… 

• You as spirit start the conversation by speaking to your emotional body, “I hate the way you try to get in the way of things I want to do.”
• Allow the emotions to respond. They may say, “I feel suffocated when you try to push me away. I am trying to do my job of guiding you in having the most loving, fun, abundant and empowered life possible.”
• Go back and forth letting them each speak.
• Then encourage the other aspects to speak, interact and express how they feel.
• Create lots of time and space so all the aspects can go back and forth speaking and expressing among one another.
• Observe and acknowledge the love that arises as the truth keeps being revealed and integrated.
• Notice how bunch of great ideas for resolution is spontaneously arising!
• All aspects of you begin to truly understand what it means to be in synergy and alignment with yourself and be a catalyst for peace from your inside out.

Bottom line are we willing take full responsibility for ending war by taking full responsibility for creating peace within ourselves? The following is a list of some common beliefs that often hold us back from bringing forth the peace we want…

• War is just part of life.
• We have to fight for our freedom.
• There is not enough for everybody, so we must fight for resources.
• Getting rid of the people we think are bad will give us peace.
• Conditions must be perfect, right and done before we can have peace.
• Peace is not possible and history proves it.
• Letting go of war and resistance is dangerous because it could set us up to be at risk for being vulnerable.

We also must find the strength to acknowledge any rage, fear and sadness we feel around the conditions in our world. Can we let these emotions move and express in safe and healthy ways? Then let the feelings go? Can we release any judgements, resentment and discrimination we are holding onto? Are we willing to stay connected to the loving source that is always with us and guide us towards the peace we want?

To the realization within ourselves of a paradigm where peace can thrive,

Crystal