Check Your Peace

To put on my Chaco sandals properly, I need to slide my feet in, get the strap around my heel, and tighten it. When I’m in a hurry, I can get away with just sliding my feet in and placing the strap under my heel, using the sandal as if it were a slipper. The sandals aren’t as functional when I wear them like this, and after a few minutes, I usually reach down to put them on properly. 

Why am I writing about sandals? Because I’ve started to notice that how I put on my sandals works as a way for me to check on my inner peace. When I am feeling calm and deeply present to myself and my surroundings, I take the extra second or two to put on my sandals properly. When I am feeling frustrated, frazzled, or frantic I think that I don’t have time and I slip on my sandals as if they were slippers. Lately, I’ve begun to practice using this occasion to recover my presence. My temptation to just slip on my sandals without tightening the straps has become my signal to slow down. 

When I am grounded in a deep inner peace, I find that I show up better in my work and relationships. When I become temporarily detached from this peace, my performance in both areas deteriorates. A bowl of water can reflect the sun to the extent that the water is still. If the water is disturbed, the image is blurred. So too, my experience is that my truest self shines forth when my soul is still and at peace. 

This week, I invite you to check your peace: 

What is my experience of my day to day life? Am I at peace in my work and in my relationships? What might I adopt as my version of slowing down to put on my sandals properly in order to check my inner peace? 

Here are a few other examples of peace checks to stir your imagination: 

• Feeling the breeze on my face or the sensation of the breath in my nose. 

• During conversation, truly listening and taking a moment before jumping right in with the next thing I want to say. 

• Perhaps this last one is less relatable, but speaking Hungarian to my children. I am bilingual, and I would like this for my children as well. At this point English is my more instinctive language. When I am impatient or hurried, I reach for English. When I’m truly present to my children, I remember to speak to them in Hungarian. 

God bless,
Dan

P.S. The bowl of water analogy was taken from the excellent little book called Searching for and Maintaining Peace of Heart.