Sixth Pathway to Healing - Peace - Part IV

 

Sixth Pathway to Healing – Peace – Part IV

Self-knowledge prepares you to succeed in self-mastery.  Periods of withdrawal from daily busyness and weekly routines are necessary to master one’s self.  You must know who you are.  Self-mastery demands a hard and honest self-assessment.  Straightforwardly, examine your assets and liabilities.  Accept light and darkness in your character.  Enumerate your strengths and weaknesses.  You evaluate your recent progress in healing.  Do the locusts of fear, anger, regret, and resentment continue to eat away your harvests of happiness and health?  Are there any persons whom you still have not forgiven?  Equally, are there any people whose forgiveness you need?  Do you owe anyone or any organization financial restitution?  Are there any relationships that necessitate reconciliation?  What would you need to do to accomplish restoration?  Are there items in the dream file of your mind and heart that continue to collect dust?  Is there anything that particularly bothers you? 

How will you neutralize or eliminate your weaknesses?  How will you expand your assets?  Are you happy, joyous and free?  If not, what would do you need to attain this blissful state in daily living?  Are there any lingering character defects that impede your progress in living the life you imagine?  Do you still suffer with unresolved formative and childhood trauma?  Are you unable to reciprocate verbal and emotional affirmation because you did not receive it?  Do you have difficulty with physical intimacy with your spouse or significant other?  Do you live in a cerebral cave to protect yourself from emotional harm?  Are you afraid to feel?  Do your passions scare you?  Are you one of the peculiar people who schedule spontaneity? I could ask a thousand additional questions.  Personalize them to enhance your periods of self-reflection.  Both questions and answers lie within the depths of your personality.  As you embrace self-mastery, you more greatly acquire the power of the Holy Spirit to heal past pain and progress toward limitless and unconditional peace.

 

Happiness is perfect self-expression.  Unless you accept the unique life that God gave you, joy will elude you.  God did not create you to be a cookie cutter impression of anyone else.  You have abilities and endowments which only you can actualize.  These gifts ideally complement your mission and purpose.  If you work outside God’s intention, you will fail.  It should not surprise us when we fail at jobs for which we are ill-suited and mismatched.  Well intentioned force fitting coupled with fierce dedication still will not garner success.  It is important to discern your purpose and work therein.  Further, it should not surprise you if you are restless and discontent when you do not pursue your heartfelt interests.  To achieve and maintain inner peace, you must embrace work, hobbies and other activities that make your life meaningful.  Be who you are!  Grab the proverbial bull of life by the horns and take the ride of your life.  Happiness depends heavily upon your willingness to understand and accept your divinely given and uniquely imparted life.

 

Self-love and self-acceptance fit together as a hand does in a tailored glove.  The seventh pathway concerns self-acceptance in detail.  However, self-love is intensely practical.  It includes pursuit of your wholehearted dreams and goals which connect to your spiritual and existential lifelines.  Knowing your purpose defines your life and gives it significance.  Learning to trust your gut and inner insight in defense of your creativity is good stewardship of your talents and abilities.  Reason, knowledge and passion are keys to knowing one’s self.  Self-awareness inevitably leads to inner peace. 

 

Peace is not the absence of outward conflict or internal turbulence.  It is sustained presence of perfect self-expression.  It is a divine gift emerging from an interdependent relationship with God that empowers you to persevere through life’s adversities.  Tranquility is a state of calm without noise, violence and anxiety.  It is an inner state of being that unfolds from unconditional acceptance. Make an alliance with the past wherein you do not close the door on it, but you utilize its lessons to help other people.  This act of emotional and mental surrender emboldens you to forgive anyone who ever hurt you.  Your acceptance of the past as complete and perfect produces the resolve to live an unimaginable life.  Endurance within your personal adversities culminates in triumph over them as truth and humility manifest in your character and life as integrity.  In its simplest form, living congruently with principles, passion, purpose and practice yields inner peace and wholeness which combine to be an effective pathway to healing.