10 Keys to Inner Peace and Joy
March 11th, 2010 | 
Author:
Inner peace and joy are spiritual gifts. The gifts of Spirit enter the heart when we make the choices we need to make to be available to them. What are these choices?
PRESENCE
Peace and joy exist in this present moment – not in the past or future. If you are in your left-brain ego programmed mind – your wounded self – you are likely thinking about the past or the future with a desire to have control over something. The moment you are out of the moment with a desire to control, you cut off access to the spiritual gifts of peace and joy, as well as to the gifts of love and truth.
GRATITUDE
The heart needs to be open in order to receive the gifts of Spirit. Nothing opens the heart faster than deep gratitude – gratitude for your life, your soul’s journey, for the body your soul lives in, for the food you eat, for friendship and caring, for shelter, and for anything else that you are blessed with – eyes that see, ears that hear, arms, legs, health, and so on. Being truly grateful for your particular blessings opens the heart to the gifts of Spirit.
COMPASSION
The opposite of compassion is judgment. When we choose to judge others and ourselves, our heart closes and we get stuck in our wounded self – our left-brain programmed ego mind. Judgment cuts us off from the gifts of Spirit, while compassion opens our heart.
It is not enough to be compassionate toward others – you need to also be compassionate with yourself, with your own feelings, your own woundedness, your own mistakes and failings. You will feel a sense of emptiness within that comes from inner abandonment when you judging yourself rather than being compassionate toward yourself.
LEARNING
When your mind is open to learning about truth and loving action toward yourself and others, you are open to receiving the love, truth, peace and joy of Spirit. Choosing the intent to learn rather than the intent to protect against pain with addictive, controlling behavior is essential for receiving the gifts of Spirit.
ACCEPTANCE
Accepting what is regarding people and events supports you in being in your open, right brain, loving adult state. When you do not accept what is, then you get stuck trying to control that which you cannot control – events and how others feel, think and behave. The moment you try to control others and events, you move into your closed, controlling wounded self, which cuts you off from the gifts of Spirit.
SURRENDER
Surrender to the wisdom of Spirit is the opposite of living out of your left-brain controlling ego wounded self. When you open to learning with the Guidance that is always with you and always all around you – the Guidance that is both imminent and transcendent – you know that you are never alone. You receive a true sense of inner safety when you open to being guided by the wisdom of Spirit rather than by the learned knowledge and programming of your wounded self.
FAITH
As you open to your Guidance and begin to receive the gifts of Spirit, you are able to move more and more into faith that you are truly not alone – that what we often call God is here always supporting you in your highest good and always manifesting your thoughts and beliefs. Faith that you are loved and that you are in co-creation with God supports you in thinking the thoughts and taking the actions that open you to the gifts of Spirit.
TRUTH
Choosing to live through accessing the truth that comes from your spiritual Guidance, rather than from the lies and false beliefs of your ego wounded self, is an invitation to all the wonderful gifts of Spirit.
INTEGRITY
Choosing to live in alignment with the goodness of your soul – which means living in integrity with your own and others’ highest good – is essential for keeping you open to receiving the gifts of Spirit.
CONSISTENCY
While many people choose the above some of the time, few people make these choices most of the time. Yet openness to receiving the peace, joy, love, and truth of Spirit requires consistency in your spiritual practice. When you consistently, moment by moment, make these choices, you will discover the deep inner peace and joy that are your birthright.
Margaret Paul, Ph.d.
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/10-keys-to-inner-peace-and-joy-708115.html
Posted in Mind Body Spirit
What do you think is the key to inner peace and happiness?
It’s Christmas!!! I. Things haven’t been going right in my personal life with friends but, I was happy to see my family opening their presents and exchanging tidings of Christmas and a Happy New Year =). I know we don’t live forever but I just want to be happy, but every year has its fair share of pain and struggle. Must the good always come with the bad? What do you think is the key to inner peace and happiness?
A very timely question especially as 2007 approaches. I guess being contented and satisfied with what you have and what you are should make us happy.
References :
i think the key to inner peace and happiness would have to well in me eyes is my music and my boyfriend when we arent fightin most of all my friends because they have always been there and that is when i am most happy is when i am with friends i am peaceful and my inner peace comes out
References :
Meditation
References :
Hello =)
Well …
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama always answers this question with a simple answer……"Warm-Heartedness"…….
He says that the purpose of life is Happiness, and the secret to Happiness is Warm-Heartedness.
Since, I truly believe that he is the happiest person on the planet, even though his father was murdered, many of his friends died in chinese prisons, and his country was taken away from him, I think he may have a valid point.
To me, the secret to happiness has been contentment. Meaning– not having expectations of yourself or others that are impossible to fulfill. If one truly expects very little, and needs very little, then one is constantly in a state of "pleasant surprise"….and therefore very happy, usually.
Perhaps, your own secret to happiness is something else entirely, but I strongly suggest that you search for it, because it is very worthwhile.
Happy Holidays, and Namaste,
–Tom
References :
If I had an answer to this question I don’t think I’d be up at 2:30 in the morning messing around with the stupid computer. Merry Christmas.
References :
The key to inner peace and happiness? Knowing Jesus Christ. After you know Him and learn to turn your troubles(pain and struggles)over to Him you will know inner peace and happiness. My life is a good example of this having type 2 diabetes and having just gone through cancer treatments.
References :
See I cannot stand Christmas for alot of reasons. Mostly b/c we celebrate it by giving and receiving presents that most of us say is great i say its ridiculous b/c now most of the focus has been put onto the gift giving. In every household ive been in most of the children have no idea what Christmas is about (neither do the adults) b/c all they do is go "where are my presents where are my presents" and annoy the piss out of most of everyone there. Then ppl get their presents and then want to complain about what they were GIVEN!!! How ridiculous. I hate the idea of gift giving I love being around the family that comes b/c I am not close with most of them but seeing the ones im close to is awesome. I like Thanksgiving much better, its chill and its about the family.
Anyways my opinion for the key to inner peace and happiness is alot of different things. First being strong willed and having a strong mind. To be able to not worry about things of the past b/c it does no good. To be able to move forward. To be able to deal with problems on your own. To do what you want when you want, and not let anyone tell you how to live ur life. To live trying to please yourself and not others (not self centered but ex: a friend wants a tattoo but she wont get it b/c she said her fiancees parents dont want her too….STUPID).
Its hard to explain..i am completely content with myself and very happy…I have made MANY mistakes in my life and I live in poverty, but I do things that I want I have great friends and a great family. No one gives me anything but I like it that way b/c I dont want ppl to try and hold anything over my head. I am living for me and regardless of money situations or women troubles I still enjoy my life and do what I want. Knowing I am my own man…thats what makes me happy.
References :
THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IN OUR LIFE!!
Please do not assume even for a moment that absolute happiness can ever be real.
All we can do is to maximize the state of happiness.
Happiness must be differentiated from the feeling of joy which is a positive emotion. Happiness is no emotion. It is simply a balanced mind without disturbance.
Obviously what we need to do is to keep on identifying and removing or avoiding whatever disturbs our mind. We can begin with small small things like a friend who is insensitive, a shopkeeper who is always in bad temper etc. etc.
Soon we would realize that outside objects are only catalysts …. the real cause of disturbance really lies within ourselves.
After considerable thought, analysis and delving deeper into insight through meditation, it has been established that the root cause is our ego… the ‘ME’ and the ‘MINE’……. every bit of unhappiness or imbalance/disturbance of mind can be traced to this ego.
I believe that in our lifetime, we can not completely get rid of ego. It appears to me that the best way is to try and reduce its impact on our thinking and actions by reminding ourselves all the time how small and minuscule we are in this great grand diverse universe, the multidimensional colossus in which we are like a no dimension point or zero. This thought can moderate us in our egocentric thinking and actions.
References :
Yes, the good must always come with the bad. Its a human tendency to take the good stuff for granted; the bad stuff happens so that we remember to be grateful for the blessings in our lives – good health, talent, loved ones etc – and cherish them.
I think the key to inner peace is firstly in accepting who you are – being comfortable with your looks, your gifts, talents and abilities. Its only when you like yourself, are you able to utilise your abilities to, above all, do things for others, instead of yourself. Personal success is important, but only to the extent that it makes you capable of helping others. That’s the second part of real inner peace: doing things to help others.
References :
Happy Christmas to you. sincere prayer is always useful to increase the inner peace Do not ask for any thing but keep thanking god for all he ha given .You will see that things improve and you will get peace. There is nothing which cannot be achieved by prayer. I am telling you this because I have achieved it. Now even a smallest wish is granted and it surprises me beyond all limits and i ask him how do you remember this poor fellow amongst your billions of devotees?
References :
i am tired of telling the same thing over n’ over…
LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
References :
Merry Christmas! I celebrated with my family a few days ago since I’m working 12 hours today & can’t be there & my brother is away for Christmas too.
Sometimes life is rough. Things go wrong. There is pain & struggle.
I think the key to inner peace & happiness is surrendering control (something I’ve never quite been able to do). If you just accept life, as it comes, without wanting to change it, without expecting it to be perfect, then it’s easier to deal with the bad. Many things are beyond our control. An attitude of acceptance about everything helps to give you serenity. If you accept & love yourself, others, the world, life, then it’s easier to be happy. If instead you focus on your flaws & on all that’s missing (or difficult or painful) in life and wish you could change it, you make yourself unhappy. Change what you can/what you need to and accept what you can’t. Like the serenity prayer says: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference…"
Now if I can just follow my own advice I’ll be all set!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
References :
Become the axle upon which the wheel spins. Inner peace and happiness is found within your own heart. The purpose of life is to find unity with God in unconditional love within your own heart. "God dwells within you as you." The meaning of life is Unconditional love. Your supreme duty in life is to express "that" to the best of your ability. As the colors of the rainbow are contained within sunlight, so to, all people are contained within Gods unconditional love. Until you find the center your life is created by your own actions in thought, word and deed. Cause and effect. watch carefully the thought you allow to enter your mind. Read "As a man thinketh" by James Allen.
References :
experience
I believe that inner peace and happiness is something different for each and every individual person. What brings me happiness is being by myself reading a good book but what brings me inner peace is spending the day with my husband, cuddled up watching a movie. Now, what I find happiness and inner peace may vary with you, you just have to look over what has bought you happiness and inner peace in your lifetime; spend a majority of your days fulfilling this desires no matter what day it is.
References :
I loved your blog.Thanks Again. Much obliged.
Please keep coming back . http://www.hasseldaniel.com …