If you look in the online power thesaurus, it has 579 antonyms or words that are the ‘opposite of peace’ in it. This covers everything from war to conflict, hatred, unrest, agitation, pain, agony and anger and more than 570 other feelings. 

‘I just want to sit ‘in peace’’ – means, I want to sit free from disturbance .. free from whatever is bothering me.   

As human beings, we allow many things to disturb our peace.nThere are four key emotions – fear, happiness, sadness or anger.  Anything that activates your sadness, anger or fear has the potential to disturb your peace. 

We can reach peace in many ways. Fundamentally, peace comes when we stop thinking thoughts that disturb us. We can achieve this through distraction or by temporarily forgetting about something or we can address the issue and transform the situation. We can also visit peace through the practice of regular meditation.  Regular visits through meditation put the ups and downs of life into perspective and even out highs and lows of the emotional roller coaster and connect us to peace within.

In life, peace comes more consistently when what we think, feel, say and do are broadly in alignment. This happens when we are true to ourselves in how we live, and live life according to what is important, and what we value and believe. 

Peace is a dynamic state. It is not merely the absence of worldly conflict. As a place, we all visit and experience peace. We temporarily visit a ‘disturbance-free zone’ in our minds and hearts when we calm our thoughts or connect with something that frees us from what is bothering us.  

When we engage in things that excite us, the happiness we feel overrides any feelings of inner agitation we struggle with. Watching the recent Wexford matches or even the Wimbledon tennis final this weekend are great examples of things that jolt us out of our normal ways of being and thinking. Although very exciting they only offer temporary respite from the humdrum of our usual inner-world. 

Spending time doing what you love or with people you love and solving problems daily adds to your regular sense of peace. 

For any of us living busy lives which is most of us these days, the pursuit of peace is a daily challenge. We will not be ‘happy’ about everything that goes on around us. When things that ‘disturb’ us happen, we have to look at them and change something to restore our inner-peace. 

Here are a few quotes that give a lot of inspiration and guidance for how we can experience more peace in daily life.  

Love and peace of mind do protect us. They allow us to overcome the problems that life hands us. They teach us to survive… to live now… to have the courage to confront each day.
Bernie Siegel

Being peaceful requires daily courage. The pursuit of it challenges us to address situations on a daily basis as they come up. Sometimes that means we have to look deep within and let things go.  It may mean we have to take action and in other cases, it may challenge us to have a conversation or even change our viewpoint.  All of these take courage and effort and oftentimes a lot of inner work.

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
John F. Kennedy

This applies to people, organisations, teams, and countries. As life changes, we change and grow from what is happening. Life makes us ‘bitter’, better’ or ‘broken’. Peace means always choosing ‘better’. 

If there’s no inner peace, people can’t give it to you. The husband can’t give it to you. Your children can’t give it to you. You have to give it to you.
Linda Evans

Peace, like happiness Is always an inside job. 

Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.
Wayne W. Dyer

Louise Hay, author of the very popular book “Heal your life” had a great line. She said: ‘never should on anyone’. When we have ‘should’ and life does not match up, we feel agitated. When we accept things as they are, we make it possible to change them.  

You’ll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.
George Michael

Spending time on what is important to you and being true to you in that are key to your inner peace. Only, your heart can tell you what that means.