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Power and Peace (Inner Balance part 2)

whatamidoingPosted for Everyone to comment on, 5 years ago5 min read

Back when I really had nothing and I was just floating around, going with the flow, I had was full of peace. Nothing scared me, nothing bothered me. I experienced emotions like anyone else but sadness was just as enjoyable as happiness. I was able to see the beauty in sadness and pain and appreciate it to the fullest. In fact, I saw the beauty in everything around me, the utter perfection in all of existence. Even the most undesirable of experiences revealed their beauty to me.

I wandered the streets because I didn't have money to do anything else. I made wonderful friends. I sat in the park and stared at people and trees and buildings, in love with every single thing around me. Meanwhile, my situation looked less and less like what I had once desired it to be. I accepted the possibility that I might die young, that none of my dreams would come to pass. If I had died I would have died in a state of bliss. It was truly a wonderful place to be. I had thrown out my earthly desires and had received everything in return. But something was missing.

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My whole life I had wanted to make the world a better place, to create something, to share everything that I could share. There I was throwing that all away. And I was ok with it. I was not bothered by these thoughts. But I knew that I could do better. I could have it all.

I set back into the mess, the game of human emotions, the world of success and failure. I knew I would not be able to maintain that state of perfect peace indefinitely, but now that I was familiar enough with it, I could call upon it to guide me and learn to integrate it into my struggle to make a place for myself in the world of human beings, a world that has still not found peace.

Until then I had gone back and forth between the means to make a change and the state of being required to make the change I desired, never able to consolidate the two. At times I had a good reputation, an increasing amount of resources and opportunities but I was not at peace, trying to fight against all that I did not desire...greed and selfishness, mindless escapism, and self denial. At other times I was at peace but without direction, without cause, and in this state I would feel myself gradually disappearing. I had no power.

Recently I've come to understand that Peace and Power are the yin and yang of a fulfilled existence. For a long time I rejected power because I misunderstood it. We think of power and we associate it with control. Power has nothing to do with control. Those who attempt to control lack peace and are trying to overcompensate.

So what is true power?
Power is the ability to stand firm. It's being assertive without being forceful. When there is an opportunity, you don't let doubt take hold, you don't waver in uncertainty. You stride forward in the direction you wish to go. When you are confronted with a problem or a setback, you face it head on. Power is determination and confidence in yourself and your ability to get where you are going.

When you add peace to the mix, power is the ability to say "I'm ok with whatever happens, but I desire THIS and I will work toward it no matter what." It's the ability to stand up when someone is taking advantage of you, not out of a place of anger or frustration, but out of a pure desire to fix the problem, unattached to the outcome. It's the ability to get back up after a failure or a setback, despite what people say. It is power over yourself.

When these two come together, anything is possible. That which seemed unmovable when you were coming at it from a place of anger will simply move out of your way without effort. These setbacks are merely challenges to see if you have what it takes to find that balance within yourself and let go of the desire to be a victim and find excuses outside of yourself for any future failure.

This is not easy stuff. Just understanding how it works does not mean everything will suddenly fall into place, but doors will open up and paths will reveal themselves.

Learning and growing is a continuous process. I'm still working on this stuff myself but I love to help others so if you would like some help with your own process, feel free to come find me on discord! See you there :-)


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