Restoring Inner Peace

Tim Coats, Hayward Wisconsin

How did we get to be this way— stressed, anxious, dissatisfied?

There’s an inconvenient answer.

We don’t see the world as it is, but rather as we are.

Thoughts are responsible for most of our stress. Thoughts establish context and perspective that shape our experience. Inner peace is less a function of circumstance than the thoughts running through our heads.

I wish I had understood that at twenty-seven!

But I can’t be too hard on myself. Thought is the default operating mode of our lives.

Here’s an analogy:

The MacBook I’m typing this post on has 85-100 million lines of code that run in the background. Apple ensures this operating system is in top condition by issuing regular updates to fix bugs, enable new features, and prevent malware attacks.

Thoughts work the same way, running in the background, coloring our realities. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could “download” an update for our lives?

We can!

I call it Silent Fitness, a practice that teaches us how to shift awareness from thought to the present moment. Thoughts always point to something that has already happened or might happen. That’s where stress comes from. Presence, absent of thought, contains none of those worries. Presence is the doorway to peace. I describe practices that build Silent Fitness in my new book, The Secret Within.

I am now launching a video series as a companion to the book that provides step-by-step instructions for building Silent Fitness. It is called Training For Inner Peace. A new episode is added every Wednesday.

You can subscribe to Training For Inner Peace on my YouTube channel. To be notified of new installments, just click the bell in the upper-right corner next to my picture. (If you received this post via email, you will be notified automatically.) The series is just getting underway. The videos are short, roughly 10 minutes long. Episode 3 will be released next Wednesday.

I’ve practiced Silent Fitness for twenty years. It has had a major impact on my life, which motivates me to share what I’ve learned to help others.

The Secret Within and the complementary video series, Training For Inner Peace, illuminate a pathway to guide you through troubling life circumstances or simply bring more calm into your life.

I hope you check them out!

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If you are new to this blog, each Sunday, I post a topic relevant to the pursuit of a life well-lived, defined as experiencing happiness that is resilient to difficult circumstances, seeing where we “fit in,” and feeling accepted just as we are.

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