Nothing Can Disturb Your Peace Without Your Permission

by Ted Karam

It’s easy to get caught up in negative emotions, often without even realizing it. Stop for a moment and check in on how you’re feeling.

Is there anything bothering you right now?

Perhaps it’s something to do with your finances, your job, a particular relationship, or your health? If you look beneath the surface, however, you’ll discover that it’s really none of these things that are troubling you.

What’s really bothering you are the stories you’re telling yourself in your mind.

It’s these mental stories that are causing the undesirable feelings. And when you feel anxious, worried, frustrated, or upset – you are sending out this negative energy that reflects back to you in the mirror of life. As you sow, so shall you reap.

So what can you do?

Maybe you can’t do anything at the moment to change the outer circumstances, but you always have the power to change how you relate to your circumstances within your mind. And when you do, everything changes!

Gain Control Of Your Mind



In order to gain control of our lives, we need to gain control of our mind, and the first step, which is so often overlooked, is to learn to quiet our mind. One of the fastest ways to dissolve anxiety and stress is to learn to disassociate from the thoughts that cause these feelings.

There are few tools more effective in achieving inner peace than a daily meditation practice. There are many different ways to enter a meditative state. In traditional meditation there is the process of following the breath, which can be very powerful, but is sometimes difficult for people. Listening to the silence is an alternate approach. Instead of following the breath, where there’s an inhale, a pause, and an exhale – and it’s constantly changing – observing silence provides a single point of focus that is constant. You may find this technique easier than other forms of meditation. Remember, you can’t make a meditative state happen, it happens when you get out of the way and become still within your mind.

Cultivate Stillness



Like anything, it takes practice to dynamically dance in the world yet be still inside. There is no greater ally than stillness to facilitate the inner awakening of your true nature and realize your interconnectedness with all that is.

With this comes the recognition of your power to change anything from the inside out. Cultivate a little time each day to be still, quiet your mind, and simply be. Carry this stillness with you throughout your busy day. Whenever you feel stressed or overwhelmed, remind yourself to pause, breathe, and smile. Remember that nothing can disturb your peace in this moment without your permission.

There is an ancient curse that states “I wish you born in interesting times.” Why would this be considered a curse? Because you will tend to be so drawn out into the world that you will lose yourself in it, and forget where the source of the reflection of the world truly is – within you. Take some time to pause throughout your day and re-member where the source of all that you perceive really is.

Why would Jesus spend 40 days in the desert, Moses seek the solitude of the mountain, or Buddha sit unmoving beneath the bodhi tree? Withdrawing from the outer world through periods of silence is a powerful spiritual practice. Perhaps this is why yogis, monks, sages, priests and spiritual adepts of all traditions seek the stillness and silence of solitude each day where they commune with the divine.

The masters knew of a great secret that exists in the inner temple of silence. It was here that they received insight, inspiration, and guidance from the supreme teacher. In the silence, they found the perfect environment to integrate and infuse their highest spiritual potential – to become transformed – and allow something greater than themselves to be birthed through them.

As you practice sitting in silence and becoming still, you will experience a deeper sense of peace and calm that carries into all aspects of your life. In the presence of this moment, you will find that greater inspiration and creatively flow through you. Whenever you feel overwhelmed or swept up in negativity of any kind, give yourself the gift of a sacred time-out, listen to the silence, quiet your mind, breathe and allow the ever-present peace of the present moment to renew you.