As I pulled on my “Be Peace” T-shirt this morning in celebration of the International Day of Peace, I was reminded that the outer manifestation of peace can only come from carrying the experience of peace within you – no matter what’s going on around you.
The first time I really GOT that viscerally, my body delivered the message to me through dancing to the 5Rhythms developed by Gabrielle Roth. It’s a meditative dancing practice in which five different rhythms (flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness) are danced in order, creating a wave of movement and energy in the body.
One day I was playing around with the usual order of the 5Rhythms – mixing them up into different sequences. I danced through a pattern of chaos, followed by stillness and then back into chaos.
When I danced into that final segment of chaos I discovered that it felt completely different from the first cycle of chaos. The stillness I had just moved with was carried into the chaos, shifting it, softening it. Same music, completely different experience.
We can do this in our lives as well by practicing inner peace daily – through meditation, nature, art, dance, deep breathing or anything that works to create stillness within. Having established that vibration of stillness and peace inside ourselves, we can carry it into any situation we encounter – no matter how chaotic, stressful or challenging it might be.
Take time each day to create peace within you. The peace you carry within can transform any stressful or chaotic situation. YOU will become the peace in the eye of the storm.