The Missing Link #5: PEACE OF MIND

Are you feeling stuck or paralyzed in your life or business? Do you spend way too much time on the internet, reading your email, drinking coffee or the equivalent because you just can’t focus on work? The fact is that many people are slackers and drifters, with mediocre lives…

The good news is that in the teleconference series on The Missing Link to Success, we look at the five components that I have found are central to creating a prosperous life. Here’s the formula:

PASSION + PURPOSE + POSITION + PRODUCTIVITY + PEACE OF MIND = PROSPERITY

As well as the article called The Missing Link to Success, which provides an overview of the whole series, there is an article for each of these ‘Five Ps’, so look for them wherever you found this article! I’m going to assume you’ve read the summary article plus the articles on Passion, Purpose and Position, because each components builds on the previous ones. Once you have developed the first four Ps, you are ready to improve your PEACE OF MIND.

What does this mean? Dictionary definitions include: “peacefulness, repose, mental quietness, serenity, tranquility.” As with so many other qualities, we may not have much experience or ability to describe peace of mind, but we all know it when we see it – usually in someone else!

Wouldn’t it be lovely to have that inner tranquility, harmony and balance that is described and apparently exemplified by Zen masters? With peace of mind, it is so much easier to make good decisions, stay on course, be in the Now, respond rather than react… well, you get the picture!

So how do you develop peace of mind when it seems so contrary to our common human traits of impatience, unkindness, mediocrity, boredom, distraction and frustration? Peace of mind has five parts or components and we will look at them one by one:

1. CHEERFULNESS or light-heartedness
2. WISDOM – spiritual intelligence married to a wider perspective
3. TRANQUILLITY – the ability to stay centered, balanced and calm no matter what
4. RENEWAL, or conditioning your mind to alignment with divine principles
5. TRUST in the larger plan

CHEERFULNESS is akin to the light that is one of the components of intelligence, and yet it is different, too. Cheerfulness is about levity and optimism rather than heaviness and gloom; it’s having light touch, seeing (and speaking) the positive rather than the negative in your circum-stances, and cultivating an open heart. “Cheerfulness opens, like spring, all the blossoms of the inward man.” (Jean Paul Richter).

WISDOM is more than intelligence, and a good deal more than cleverness. It is “the ability to discern or judge what is true, right or lasting; insight; good judgement”. Wisdom is when you connect with the higher truth, light and perspective of divine intelligence, that larger, more complex self-awareness of which we are a part. When you are running that program, you see the world around you as a small piece of a larger energy field, folded into a divine plan that is for your benefit and the benefit of everyone around you. Can you rest in that sea of tranquility?

TRANQUILLITY is about rising above petty annoyance into feelings of positive, peaceful insight towards yourself and others. When you have a tranquil mind (which really means a tranquil heart) then you can easily step aside from any annoyance and agitation because you know the picture picture and can rest in a perspective that keeps anything smaller in its correct place. A tranquil mind is like the mountain that barely notices the passing storm.

Tranquility is developed by mindfulness, concentration, detachment and meditation (which is really a silent form of prayer). When you feel peaceful and detached with respect to your own life, you can expand those feelings towards those around you, including whatever you normally find upsetting (such as politicsal, social or family issues).

RENEWAL of the mind is where we retrain the soul to operate on a higher level. (As it says in Scripture, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”) We each have the characteristics of divine intelligence, and our lives work so much better if we draw on divine principles. Everyone creates from images and words. However, you can only draw those pictures and concepts from what is already in your hard drive – your inner database. So you need to fill up that database with images and words of what you DO want rather than what you DON’T want. “From the full heart, the mouth speaks”; thus, if you want to create using your words, you had better fill up your heart (and mind) with that which is good, acceptable and perfect; again, that’s why any kind of sacred writing encourages us that “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

How do we do this in practice? By taking dominion over our own minds and hearts, using prayer and meditation to turn away from what does not add excellence and virtue, and towards everything we do want to experience: a happy life filled with prosperity, calm, , focus on our passion, purpose, service, and connection with our divine blueprint and with divine intelligence.

TRUST is the ability to assume that there is a plan, that you will be looked after, that others mean you well, and that God is looking after you. Have you ever noticed how people generally behave the way you expect them to? I used to know someone who did not trust women at all. He treated them as if they had already betrayed him, and of course they eventually realized that no amount of trustworthy behavior would make an impact, so they would leave him… thereby confirming his belief. Your beliefs always filter your impressions and experiences, and you will attract and create the circumstances that confirm those your beliefs.

Trust is assuming that others mean well, for lack of reason to suspect the contrary. Without being naïve or gullible, you can choose to believe that there is a reasonable explanation for someone’s behavior, and refrain from upset until you’ve given them an opportunity to explain. In this respect, trust is like forgiveness: it’s a choice, a matter of will rather than emotion. You can choose to trust, and have the world conform to your belief (at least most of the time), or you can choose to believe in treachery and betrayal, and find justification in that belief. If you don't trust, ultimately it’s God that you believe will betray you.

So there you go: when you combine cheerfulness, wisdom, tranquillity, renewing your mind, and trust in the larger plan, then you can choose and practice the peace of mind that allows you to make the best decisions and carry them out. Of course, this will lead to your prosperous life!