Everything Is Connected
Making Peace with Ourselves
Love and peace of mind do protect us. They allow us to overcome the problems that life hands us. They teach us to survive ... to live now ... to have the courage to confront each day.
-Bernie Siegel
Today, as is our custom at the end of each week, we reflect on what we have learned and how best to integrate our learnings into our lives. This week we reflected on what it means to make peace with ourselves in the four quadrants of the Living Compass Model of Well-Being. While we looked at each point on the compass separately, it is essential that we recognize that all eight areas of wellness are interconnected.
Imagine a mobile, like one that might hang from a child’s ceiling or crib. Imagine that eight separate pieces are hanging from this mobile. If you were to shake one piece of the mobile, what would happen to the other seven pieces? Though separate, they would begin shaking, as well, because the eight pieces, like the areas of wellness, are connected. This is why when we experience disturbance or lack of peace in one area of our lives, it often will manifest as disturbances in other areas of our lives.
The good news is that when we choose to focus and make changes in an effort to bring greater peace to one area of our lives, this too will radiate out to the rest of our lives. If all the pieces of a mobile are moving around and you take hold of just one and stabilize it, it will gradually bring stability to all the other parts of the mobile, as well.
Making it Personal: Can you think of a time when you made a choice to bring peace and calm to one area of your life and then noticed that your choice also created greater peace and calm in others areas of your life? As you reflect on what you learned about making peace with yourself this week, what is one insight you want to be sure to remember? Is there a change or a choice that you have made this week that you want to stay with for the remainder of Advent, and perhaps beyond?