My Inner Peace Is Not Negotiable

That morning she got up just like on any other morning, but when she went to the bathroom to wash her face she could sense that there was something different. Standing in front of the mirror, something from within her, like a deep force, had a message for her: I am your inner peace, and it’s time you started looking after me.

She had had a few bad months with lots of ups and downs and had lost the desire to receive any sort of present or nice gesture that the world wanted to offer her. However, she knew her inner voice was right: it was time to set priorities, re-define what was really important, because everything she had had been erased long ago.

It could well be that were millions of obstacles around her, preventing her from developing the art of looking after herself, but at last she had understood that looking after herself, at least once a day, would be of great benefit to her well-being. In addition, it would be like a “post it note” in her memory in which was written: “It’s that time of the day to get out of the wood that surrounds you, jump on a balloon, and view the scene from above”.

Wings instead of brakes

She was reflecting from time to time throughout the day. First, she became aware of how difficult it was to follow the purpose that has been marked out for us. We live in a society that forces us to relate to other people and which always keeps us busy, stopping our minds from contemplating our interests in a clear way. As if watching over them, consciously and intentionally, were a sin: the clearest sign that we are selfish.

But it was not just that. She had fought with the most terrible monsters that had ever been created, and they had made fear, anxiety and sadness take over her life. They had caused her tears, longings and internal breakdowns.

She had also had to deal with wrong decisions, tricky circumstances and difficult moments that slipped from her hands, between her fingers, as if they were water. Nor could she forget the times she had walked with blindfolded eyes, through the fault of people who wanted to live two lives, one of them being hers.

But the best purposes in life aren’t easy, and so this one wasn’t going to be either: the pain was inevitable and even courageous, but it was high time that suffering stopped wasting away time that would never be returned to her.

Choose what you want to be

At that moment she remembered something that she had read some time ago: that we are what we try to be and so, for that reason, we have to choose very carefully. This was precisely what she needed in order to establish priorities in life: to do it would be to act in accordance with them and remove the discord that make the mind and actions out of sync.

It began with a decision: to leave behind what had kept her tied to the ground, to tell herself more often that she was special, and to keep her light close to her – the light that had been hidden from sight. After all, she was the defender of her dreams, the best ally of her self-esteem, and she had people with her who had never stopped enlightening her with their affection.

She wanted to be someone who understood that her inner peace needed to find its place in this world and to remain connected to her. Smiling at the baker who lived two blocks away when she went shopping, being grateful for the little details, giving out love to her loved ones. Only then would the balance return and the monsters would no longer make so much noise.

Inner peace is not a possibility, it is a right

In the following days she realised what that deep voice she had heard had really wanted to say: she has a right to be well and that wasn’t a possibility to be negotiated. She had to fight for her serenity, her calmness and her inner peace, since only then would she be able to find a little happiness amongst all that remained.

It was well worth finding the way to attain it, especially because her state of well-being would let her see that inner peace is “living inside oneself”, knowing that you are happy with what you have, what you do and what you are sharing. From then on she promised to never stop looking at herself in the mirror every morning, because that way she would never forget it.