How to find inner peace in the chaos right now
The world is burning. This is how you can find a few moments of peace right now.
by: E.B. Johnson
The world is on fire right now and it’s not hard to understand why. For centuries, black people and poor minorities have been trampled by the states they entrusted and now everything is coming to a boil. From climate change to riots, everywhere you look is chaos. That’s why it’s even more important to make sure you’re working hard to protect your inner peace.
Even as we strive for justice and equality through justified protests of every variety, it’s crucial that we still fight for our own needs and the peace and security we need to maintain the battle. The journey we’re on now is a long one, and it’s going to require all of us to expend a great amount of energy in order to find justice. While you strive for peace for black people and minorities, remember to connect with your own peace too — and rest and recharge when and where you can.
Hard worlds don’t have to make us hard people.
The world we live in now is hard, but it’s imperative that we don’t allow it to harden our souls too. The fight we’re in now against racial inequality and injustice is a noble one, but it’s one that ultimately comes from a place of compassion and love. We want black people to be safe. We want them to have the same opportunities as we do. We hold on to this transformative compassion by safeguarding it through internal peace.
You have to learn how to find your own inner peace, even in the middle of a dramatic and vicious national struggle. While cities burn and leaders scramble to respond, you have to find your center and find that calm that allows you to get organized and ready to act.
Without finding your sense of calm, you run the risk of losing yourself in the madness and the heartache and the struggle. No matter how good our intentions might be, our energy and our emotional resilience is finite. We have to start looking the bigger picture and keep our long-term goals in focus. Now is a time for drastic and dramatic action, but it’s also a time to safeguard and prioritize your own needs.
Why it’s important to find inner peace in the madness.
If you fail to take enough time for yourself in the midst of all this madness, you can find yourself slipping down a mental and emotional spiral that makes it impossible for you to help your community in the long-term. It’s crucial that we take regular time off from the negative and recharge our batteries so that we can get back out on the streets and march in the face of adversity.
Stress makes it hard to think straight
The protests and the riots are causing a lot of stress — and they’re meant to. Stress can seriously overwhelm our physical and emotional states, however, and make it impossible for us to function or see clearly. In order to make sure we can manage this new way forward effectively, we have to learn how to take a step back every once in a while and decompress from the stress so that we can jump back in the battle fulfilled and ready to fight alongside our black brothers and sisters.
Too much chaos to organize
There is no doubt that direct, physical action and protest is needed now to demand an end to the murder and injustice. When too many of us get wrapped up in the chaos and anger of it all, however, it becomes impossible to organize and defeat the oppressors. Take a step back — now and then — and remember to look at the bigger picture. Are you burning the wrong bridge? Through our inner peace and direction, we can find more effective channels for our rage.
Breaking down compassion
If you don’t stay tuned into your inner peace, it’s extremely hard to stay tuned into your compassion. Through our peace, we are better equipped to see the good in others and trust them and connect with them. When our compassion breaks down, it makes us cold and turns us into shadows of the oppressors that we’re fighting. It’s crucial that we keep our compassion in sight, and that we do this by maintaining inner peace even while we act out willfully in the world around us.
Zapping yourself too soon
Make no mistake, this war is going to be a long one with a lot of chaotic twists and turns. If we truly want to see our black friends and family freed from the oppression of the state, we’re going to have to fight alongside them and do it for the foreseeable. That requires a lot of energy, and that is energy that we get by staying in tune with our needs and ensuring we can find our deeper sense of peace.
Ability to build bridges
Tapping into our inner peace allows us to better navigate the complicated skill of relationship building, which is more crucial than it ever has been before. We have to organize and connect with one another like never before. Institutions of oppression use the chaos to keep us isolated and divided, which makes it impossible to organize and topple their agendas. Finding your peace enables you to see through this charade and build better bridges to a more united future.
How to find inner peace in the midst of the chaos.
It’s not impossible to peace in the midst of all the chaos — though it might seem so right now. By getting proactive about our own wellbeing and learning to look at the bigger picture, we can actually find the energy and the motivation to keep fighting in the name of change, justice and equality.
1. Take regular time for yourself
You have to take regular time for yourself, even if you’re at the center of a protest and in the heart of some of the most hotly contested cities. Personal time allows us to give our brains a short break to decompress. This time is crucial for maintaining our motivation and energy, and it’s crucial to keep us focused on the big picture (rather than caught up in little details or skirmishes that detract from what we’re trying to achieve).
Understand that it’s not selfish to turn the TV off or walk away from a protest for a few minutes or even a few hours. The path we are on now is a long one, and we need to conserve our energy for the long-term fight ahead. Taking time for yourself allows you to recharge and build this energy.
Look at the big picture. The changes we want aren’t going to happen overnight. This battle is only the first in a long war that has been brewing since the forming of our country. Pace yourself, and stay in touch with the authentic core of who you are. Don’t lose sight of your values; don’t lose sight of your heart. Take a few minutes every day to write, relax, read or otherwise unwind through your passions. This will enable you to stay connected with your energy and better-able to think through the major decisions that are coming.
2. Find a way to revel in little pleasures
A practical way to boost your peace and positivity during these trying times is to get into the age-old art of treating yourself with some self-care. This means getting back in the ability to revel in the small things, while letting go of the guilt that keeps you from pursuing your own inner peace in the middle of such gut-wrenching chaos.
Let go of the idea that — just because there is so much suffering on — that you also cannot enjoy yourself. It’s crucial that you still find moments of joy, no matter how small, which can provide you with the energy and motivation to keep fighting when you’re needed.
Soldiers don’t stay engaged in combat 24/7/365 once they enter a way. Battles happen in ebbs and flows. Some points are intense; others are slow-moving. Either way, soldiers take a break. They eat. They’re sent on furlough. They get different orders; move around. Find a way to revel in the little pleasures of a good meal and good conversation. Reconnect with your joy so you can get back on the front lines.
3. Don’t lose sight of the love in the rage
So many of us are enraged right now — and it’s not only understandable, it’s justified. Our governments and their representatives have long-sense ceased to represent us or our interests; for a great number of our population, they never represented them at all. We want justice, and we want it now. But it’s important not to lose sight of where this desire for justice comes from: our love, empathy and compassion.
Don’t lose sight of the ultimate love, compassion and empathy that is driving your rage and your hatred. Don’t allow the darkness of the oppressors to overcome you. Keep a tight hold on your humanity and the feelings of hope and justice you want to secure for the people that you love.
Being pushed to the point of mis-directed physical violence leaves us no better than our oppressors that have terrorized us for centuries. When we form a barrier of hatred, we become their shadows and in that direction lies more heartache for our world. We cannot become the monsters that we hunt. We have to organize and direct our rage into the right places. Only then can we hold tight to our humanity and the ultimate love we want to see spread through the world.
4. Find a way to build bridges
Make no mistake — the powers that be want us to be angry and divided among one another. The more divided we are, the easier we are to manipulate and emotionally stoke. That’s why it’s crucial that we focus on building bridges and relationships across our communities right now, so we can coordinate our numbers and organize to create the world we’re ready to demand.
Don’t isolate yourself. Reach out to like-minded people and start building a support network you can organize with and rely on in your area. The relationships we share with others who hold our same vision of the future are more important than ever before. Rely on them and build connections rather than isolating yourselves (as the oppressors wish).
This is no time to feed into the fear. The more people you have in your corner, the more calm and peaceful you will feel as chaos continues to spread. Share how you’re feeling with these people, and share ideas on how you can start making real and rational changes right now. Relationships are important, and through them we can find peace, stability and security.
5. Take a break from the news
It’s so crucial to stay plugged in right now, but it’s also crucial to give your brain (and your emotions) a break. Just as you need to zero in on your good feelings every day, you also need to step back and take a deep breath away from the bad. Then, you can come back to your action with a clearer vision and the energy to react and act appropriately.
Clear your head (and your environment) of all news updates and feds for just a few minutes each day. There is little that is going to occur in 5 minutes or 15 minutes that will change through your direct knowledge. Put your phone on silent and walk away.
Use the time to clear out all the negative thoughts and emotions. Detach from the world and detach from the turmoil that you might be feeling yourself. Set a timer; live in a delusional land of calm and peace until that timer goes off. Once you hear the bell, you can go back to checking the news — but not before then. Do this every day, even if it’s only for 3–5 minutes of quiet contemplation.
6. Remember your softness
Hard though it might be right now, you have to remember your softness in the midst of all this chaos and all this anger. To leave yourself too long in the fires of hatred is to find yourself hardened and calcified with an impenetrable rage of your own. Don’t lose sight of your softness, or the love that brought you to this point of anger and absolute grief.
Don’t forget your compassion and don’t forget those loving parts of yourself that can still see the good in people. Don’t lose your optimism or that positive feeling of wonder that you can still feel when you look out over nature.
We are living through times that demand hard action — but those actions need to come from soft people that act self-righteously from a place of love and longing for equality. Allowing yourself to harden with hatred is to allow yourself to become a reflection of the very institution we are trying to dismantle. Mobilize your rage through love and don’t forget the soft and caring soul that is at the center of it all.
Putting it all together…
Our world is on fire no matter what angle you look at it from and it can be easy to get swept up in all the chaos. How do you keep yourself from being pulled under, when your direct and continued action, involvement and energy is precisely what’s needed right now? You do it by tapping into your inner peace and ensuring you get enough time to recharge and reengage in the fight.
No matter where you stand in the battle, take time for yourself to rest and recharge each day. This time can be as small as 15 minutes, or take up most of the day or an afternoon. Whatever you do, pursue the things that allow you to get refocused on what you need to do next. Reconnect with the little joys in your life and find a way to get re-inspired about the future that you’re fighting for. Don’t lose sight of the love behind your rage, and your ultimate desire to see everyone treated with respect and humanity. Spend this time building more bridges and get organized with people who have the same visions of a future as you. This is not the time to get isolated. We find comfort and security through relationships, so build them in your community today. Take a short break from the news each day and — whatever you do — don’t lose sight of your softness. Just because these are hard times does not mean we have to become hard people. Hold tight to your empathy and your compassion and let it direct the rage you feel right now in this historical moment of action.
