Negotiating peace with yourself.
We certainly know how important it is to negotiate peace with others,
But first let's negotiate peace with ourselves because we know peace begins within.
And our biggest obstacle in really negotiating peace with ourself isn't really another person or a lack of power.
It's really always going back to ourselves.
Many times we do sabotage ourselves.
And that always,
Again,
You have to look at is where does that come from?
How deep can you dive to see if there's something inside yourself that hasn't negotiated peace within yourself?
If you have any hidden shadow selves,
Any destructive patterns,
Any issues with self-worth,
Any problems with communication,
Then we really can find that we have to do that first with loving ourselves and understanding ourselves to make better relationships with ourselves.
And I say relationships,
Not relationship,
Because we have a lot of roles we play in life.
Shakespeare said that.
The whole world's staged and we are actors playing out our roles indeed,
And we do,
And it can be very helpful if you do a lot of different things in life.
I do.
If you trust in yourself,
You can find that deep inner purpose that is really what you came here for.
Then you can trust yourself to take a chance.
And part of that is to really be able to understand all of yourself.
We are very,
Very deep,
Complex people.
And your soul's been with you for so long,
Many lifetimes,
And over the lifetimes has played out in many,
Many,
Many roles in many different places.
And has learned to hone the skills.
You know,
A lot of times to get what you want is really important in life.
So you work your whole life to get what you want,
Right?
But how about if you work your whole life to get what you want and then get stuck in that?
And that's not really what you want anymore.
So it's a very interesting,
Complex,
Deep dive into ourselves to negotiate peace with ourselves.
Because if you're following the role you started with and you make major changes inside yourself through meditation and hard work and insights and reading,
And then you're still doing that different role that is your old role,
That part of you that wants to grow may be continuing to prod you.
And you might subconsciously be getting anxious and angry that you're not fulfilling your purpose in life.
And yes,
It can take a lot of risk.
Absolutely,
It takes a lot of nerve courage.
But then to negotiate peace with anyone and with yourself does take courage.
So how about thinking first about how you can negotiate with yourself?
Looking at a few major principles here.
We all know we have an inner child.
And it's important that we understand what that inner child is wanting.
It's very easy to feed the child some candy or do,
I don't know,
Maybe it is eating for you,
Maybe it's shopping,
You know,
Maybe it's taking a vacation,
Which is very,
Very hard to do these days.
I like to travel and I haven't in ages.
But if you do a little bit of that,
You can keep that inner child happy.
But isn't it best to know what's making that inner child speak and scream sometimes out to you?
And that inner child needs to be recognized,
It needs to be loved,
It needs to be given hugs and understood and talked to and recognized.
So that would be,
I think,
A very important thing to go into meditation with,
Doing a meditation with yourself and finding that inner child within you and finding out what that inner child wants.
Let it speak to you.
Let it express to you what it needs.
Your inner child will let you know if you can be quiet enough to listen.
Of course,
Listening is such an important key in negotiating,
Right,
And in communicating.
So if you can learn to listen to yourself and your inner child,
That's a tool that you can use in finding peace with yourself and finding peace with another person.
Why not tell your inner child,
I love you,
I'm sorry,
Please forgive me,
And thank you.
The hoʻoponopono practice there works with the inner child as well.
The other part of yourself,
You might take a step to understand is that part of you that is your shadow self,
Your dark side.
I've sat in Zen meditation for days sometimes and it's very fascinating to see what comes up when you're sitting in meditation for a long time.
All kinds of stuff that you may have been hiding will surface if you're sitting in silence for a long time.
And people work real hard to keep that stuff buried.
In fact,
It gets a little strange sometimes when you see people acting out after that stuff starts to surface.
But again,
This is where negotiating comes in and understanding and forgiveness and listening.
You can go deep into your emotions and your subconscious and deeper levels of consciousness and find out what is it?
What is it that's been buried there?
What do you really,
Really feel that you may have blocked?
But if you don't find out,
If you don't give that dark side,
The shadow self,
A chance to express itself,
You'll find that that shadow self can actually sabotage what your goals are.
And then when you're finding that conflict within,
Then you will find yourself having to find peace.
And you may not even realize that you are indeed sometimes sabotaging yourself because of that shadow part of yourself.
I mean,
What could be a better example of this than people at New Year's making resolutions?
We all know so many people make resolutions and we also know that majority of those resolutions do not get fulfilled because it's something we know we should do,
But there's something in us,
Be it the inner child or the shadow self,
That will sabotage that part that we've been trying to make the resolution to correct.
I mean,
Of course,
One of the things most people make resolutions about New Year's,
I think the most biggest thing is going on a diet.
And that's a hard thing,
Changing your patterns of eating,
You know,
It involves your inner child.
It includes,
You know,
What you do to cover up the pain.
You know,
It could be many things,
But if you work on negotiating with yourself and negotiating peace,
That peace that passeth understanding and make yourself whole in that peace,
Then you have a much better way of improving your love of yourself,
Your understanding of yourself,
Your feeling of worthiness,
And all of those are so important in finding peace within yourself and finding forgiveness for yourself.
And when you do that,
You can learn to love others more.
You can learn to communicate better.
You can learn to understand and have more empathy and you can learn to find peace with another person.
And so take some time in meditation and allow yourself to just clear anything out of your mind and to just be comfortable and to just breathe in peace and to really be at peace in a place where you are so solid in yourself,
You can listen.
And then go within and start to allow your inner child to speak to you in a safe place.
And allow that child to express to you,
Just allow that child to express what it feels,
What it wants.
And don't interrupt the child,
But love the child while it is expressing it and write down what that inner child really wants.
And send that inner child lots of love and forgiveness,
Understanding all the things the inner child might not have gotten.
And then also take time,
May not be the same session to go into meditation in a sacred space with lots of protective light around you and contact your shadow self,
That deep,
Deep part of yourself.
It may take sitting for a long time,
It may take weeks,
But allow that part that you may have buried to come up and express that feeling that is there.
Those issues,
Possibly deep pain,
Possibly anger,
Resentment,
Allow all of that to come out and then love it,
Love it all,
Love it all and release it.
I know if you can take the time to do this,
You will find this journey will be a life-changing one.
And as you learn to do these different processes to love yourself,
To find peace within yourself,
To understand your inner child and that dark shadow side of yourself,
And to accept all of that,
You will find peace.
