The Price of Peace

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When you're alone with your thoughts, do you feel at home, or do you look for a way out?

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It's a daunting feeling when you realize peace is alluding you. It takes stepping out of your life and assessing the turmoil you operate in everyday may not actually be healthy...or normal. A lot of times we feel the mental chaos we live in is common place. Not only is it not, it's not healthy either. 

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With the rush of daily life and the constant noise of the world, it can be a struggle to find a quiet moment with your own thoughts.

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When you are able to be alone in your thoughts...is it enjoyable? Or is it stressful to the point you just want to distract yourself with technology or keep yourself busy to escape? Sometimes what people find in silence isn’t peaceful... it reveals just how loud things are inside.

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I think if measured, peace can be an expensive commodity, one worth its weight in gold. But it can seem so illusive. Is it a feeling? Is it a state of mind? Is it even possible? 

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Whatever it is, peace is your responsibility…. And no one else’s. 

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While others may have significant impact on your peace, the peace you lack is not their fault. It’s yours. Although it can be difficult navigating the waters of someone else’s actions invading your mental space. Regardless… this will forever be a part of your life unless you go live as a hermit in the woods. 

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So let's own it. 

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What does a lack of peace sound like? 

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• Addiction to Distraction: The phone scroll isn’t just boredom, it's a way to avoid being alone with your thoughts.

• Chronic Busyness: Filling every minute because silence feels dangerous or unproductive.

• Constant Outrage: Always having a cause to be angry about, often used to mask a deeper helplessness or lack of agency.

• Success Without Satisfaction: Climbing the ladder only to feel emptier the higher you go.

• Tense Relationships: Where boundaries are confused with rejection, and love is confused with validation.

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I think for most people it's hard to claim you don't partake in at least one of the above, and that's a short list!

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So what would examples of having peace sound like?

• Calm in the Noise: A grounded presence, even with constant pings, deadlines, and online chaos.

• The Ability to Disagree Without Hatred: Civil discourse, listening with curiosity rather than reloading to win.

• Security Without Hyper-vigilance: Walking through life without bracing for the next blow, email, comment, or global crisis.

• Enough: A sense that this moment is sufficient, not because it's perfect, but because you're not grasping for the next fix.

• Connection Without Performance: Relationships where you’re seen as you are, not for how you show up on a screen or resume.

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I think if you asked the world today how to capture peace you would be given a list of things like meditation, breath work, and journaling. While there are benefits to all these practices I find them to be bandages to soothe the pain of the actual ailment. 

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That ailment is the mindset we apply to handle problems, trauma, and difficult people. These practices, while seemingly everyday thought patterns, are in fact the culprit behind the stress and stolen peace you maybe experiencing. For example:

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Needing to Control Everything 

Obsessing over outcomes, people, or the future creates anxiety and robs the present of calm.

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Mole hills into Mountains

Turning small issues into full-blown crises in your mind fuels chronic stress.

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Living for External Validation

When peace depends on praise, likes, or approval, you're always at the mercy of someone else’s opinion.

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Tying Identity to Productivity

Believing you're only valuable when you're achieving robs from your ability to ever rest.

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Comparing Constantly 

Measuring your life against others keeps you in a loop of scarcity, not gratitude.

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Are any of these common practices for you? 

These are the root of inner discord.

And this is only a short list.

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It’s worth highlighting all the proactive habits...meditation, breath work, journaling, while helpful, are often just buffers. They soothe symptoms, but they don’t always address the cyclical thought patterns underneath.

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Until you confront those patterns, peace will remain temporary. Something you chase, not something you carry.

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You see... Peace is worth Fighting for, and it's also worth letting go for, and slowing down for, and trusting for, and stopping for....

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Peace is the one thing that requires a transaction. You have to be willing to trade something for it.. The good thing is, all the things you trade for it.. are trash anyway. 

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Today’s Forced Challenge: I want you to FORCE yourself to attack at least one of these challenges

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1. Say “No” to Something You’d Normally Say “Yes” To (Out of Guilt or Obligation): Peace requires boundaries. Reclaim one.

2. Write Down the 3 Things That Are Stealing Your Peace and Why You Allow Them:Awareness precedes freedom. Call them out.

3. Forgive Someone (Even If They Don’t Deserve It): Not for them. For you. Carrying resentment is like drinking poison hoping they’ll get sick.

4. Unfollow/Mute 10 Accounts That Trigger Comparison or Outrage: Peace doesn’t mean ignorance, it means choosing what feeds your soul.

5. Go 24 Hours Without Complaining (Out Loud or In Your Head): Complaining is a habit of discontent. Practice gratitude instead. You’ll be shocked how often it creeps in.

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Unfortunately peace will never find its way to you on its own. You're going to have to meet it in the middle somewhere. It wants to find you but you have to clear the path. When you do meet though.... it's like running into a long lost friend. 

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"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." 

 — Ralph Waldo Emerson