Have you ever wondered: How do I bring peace and ease into my life? Where does that begin? What does that look like? OR do you find yourself saying.... When I get a better job I will be happier.... or When I find the right partner I will have joy or ease in my life!

Well this way of thinking is exactly what is preventing you from having all that you are looking for!

I would like to encourage you to take a moment and write down all of the things you are grateful for in this very moment! List everything no matter how big or how small, write it all down!

With this exercise you awaken your mind to the abundance all around you right now..... in order to receive abundance you must train you mind to perceive it! The mind is excellent at finding what it expects! Therefore, if you think: I will be happy when (fill in the blank).... then this is your mindset and you will always be longing for something in the future which does not exist and is not guaranteed. This leaves you always chasing but never receiving!

I bet each and everyone of you would like to receive so lets start with a concept I call The Peace Choice....

The Peace Choice is a representation of a moment, when we all have to either choose PEACE or some other emotion that may perpetuate our suffering. Whether that be fear, anger, self-pity, hatred, and the list can go on and on. This moment is MAGIC, a moment of POWER, a blessing to be held, to be grateful for, and if we can learn to recognize when we come to this crossroads we can take back the power and cultivate true inner peace within ourselves leading to a happier existence where we cease just surviving and truly begin to thrive! This is The Peace Choice.

This moment may appear once on a given day or an uncountable number. It will depend on the day, the situation or circumstance you may find yourself in, but with the right tools: self-love and compassion The Peace Choice will become easier each time you make it. This is how the mind works. This is neuroscience! Our beautiful brains have the ability to rebuild neuropathways when we actually decide to change a pattern; it is called neuroplasticity.

When we first start it is difficult, like starting a new workout, or driving a car down a bumpy dirt road when it is used to driving down the expressway. Of course it is easier to backup and take the expressway, but this is the rewiring period. With each experience that you choose peace over conflict, anger, or fear that dirt road will get a little smoother and easy to travel down. It will start to feel less foreign. Ever time you take this new road you are smoothing and eventually paving it. The cool part is the expressway of old begins to shrink; it will lose a lane, going from a 4 lane down to a 3. With time their rows will reverse. The once dirt road is now the expressway and the old expressway will revert to a dirt road. This works because the central nervous system will not waist neurons or energy maintaining a pathway in your brain that you are no longer using. This is truly mind over matter! We completely have the ability to change and shift our worlds with the power of our thoughts!

This is how The Peace Choice works! And it does work.

I know this works because I have used it. As a child I didn't realize or understand what I was doing but it was exactly this.

Things were hard for me, as I feel it has been for far too many of us.... There was traumatizing abuse: physical, mental, and sexual. Everywhere I looked someone was being abused in one way or the other. The saving grace was the connection within me that knew it was not meant to be like this.

I remember reading about Holocaust Survivors when I was 7 or 8 in our school library and my heart ached for them to such a degree that finding the best words for it is tough…. I tapped into empathy and compassion for those around me in this world. I started to see how even the people abusing me were also being abused or had been abused. It occurred to me they were hurting as well. Their goal was not to hurt me. They were just continuing to choose the expressway they were taught was the only way to live.

This realization did not make the abuse stop, but it did give me a different perspective, it showed me a different road to travel. Instead of being a victim of abuse, helpless and hopeless, through compassion for my “enemies” I just simply saw a pattern of abuse in the world. We were all suffering, just in different ways AND everyone was just trying to survive…. If you do not want to be abused then be the abuser etc….

So I was at the crossroads. The choices were:

ONE - identify with the role of always being the victim of someone else, which left me powerless and at the mercy of those around me.

TWO - I could accept that there was something this experience could teach me and I got to decide what that lesson’s energy would be. I could have became untrusting and fearful or I could see the pain they too were suffering and make a difference by not repeating that pattern.

I chose to be grateful for everything in my life even the pain because it made me stronger. I realized I did not break….

Once old enough to get away from the abuse I did and the journey of healing began. It has been a long and rewarding journey. Now as I look back I often ask myself if given the opportunity to go back and change the suffering of my life would I do it? My answer is always a resounding NO!!!!

That suffering was an amazing blessing and a true gift! It has made me who I am today. I do not feel like a victim nor do I carry any hatred or ill-will towards anyone from my past. In fact I love them greatly; they are on my list of people and situations I am grateful for everyday!

This is the way of The Peace Alchemist…. Messes into miracles, ordinary into extraordinary …. If I had not had the opportunity to face those tribulations I may have ended up ordinary, but I believe without a doubt that these experiences have made me extraordinary!

In closing, please take a moment to reflect on your life right now….

What are you going through that you wish you were not? Write these things down.

NOW reflect on these situation as if you were at a crossroads with two choices.

ONE - Envision where fear, resentment, anger, and victimhood will take you. How does that make you feel within your body, your mind, your heart?

TWO - Envision what it would look like if you saw the opportunity or the lesson in what it is you are going through and embrace that with love and gratitude. How does that make you feel within your body, your mind, your heart?

Dare to choose peace, joy, and abundance right now in this moment. Be grateful for all you have, all that you are experiencing, and see how different it feels!

Peace be with you now and always.

The Peace Alchemist :)

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