“Peace.  What does it mean to you?”

This was the question posed to me by a friend who asked me to write a guest blog post for her writers’ site Romancing the Genres.  July’s theme was ‘Peace’

As you might surmise from this blog’s title, it was a journey and an adventure, that ultimately led me to a liberation.

Here’s the story:

FLOWING INTO PEACE. OR, HOW I ALMOST DIDN’T WRITE THIS BLOG by Heather Michet

“It’s midnight on the day before my guest blog piece on Peace is due; but I missed my own declared deadline which was the day just ended.

The Mind Map loaded with ever-increasing ideas, words and notes about Peace was started weeks ago and boy did that feel like a victory over my often, okay usual, last minute completion of anything with a due date, or dreadline, as I lovingly refer to it.

I’d even kept my agreement to myself to do the actual writing on the morning of my self-imposed submission date.  But as I wrote, some Squirrel!!! idea took me and the article on a trail that didn’t feel quite right.  Sure, it was talking about Peace and how we can get there with steps and tools, but it wasn’t what I wanted to publish. Now I’d spent the writing time and ended up with crap on the page, along with feeling like crap about what I read there.

As I’ve learned through my writing life, I let it rest, figuring that when I came back to it I’d realize that maybe instead of crap, I had a great piece or at least part of one.  Nope.  I felt even worse about it because not only had my writing window been blown, but I now couldn’t justify enjoying the rewards I’d set up to indulge in.  Bummer.  And I had nothing to submit…double bummer and self-love and peace destroyer.

3 Steps to Turn Turmoil to Peace

Clearly, something shifted because here you are reading this!  How did I move from freaked out to calm and confident?  My first step towards peace (and a completed article) was to:

1. STOP and sit in a favorite chair,
2. Let out a few tears as I was being healed and comforted by my Velcro cat, Yasmina, and then    

3. Sing my chantra I Am the Light several times to continue clearing what was holding me back from a sense of peace and flowing writing.

Just like magic, I was ready to write something congruent and submittable because I had cleared the blocks, the stoppers, the resistance, to Flow that leads to calm, harmony within oneself and serenity.

Unblocking the Flow of Peace

Whether I am zonked out during an Acupuncture treatment, sitting alongside a river, or singing at the bedside of a client’s final hours of life, the uninhibited circulation of energy throughout all of my being (the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual bodies) brings forth Peace.  Time and time again, using breath work, stillness and singing releases whatever I’m holding onto that is blocking my Peace.

Does this practice apply to two individuals, a corporate team, or nations?  Absolutely.  When we are experiencing anything but peace in our personal, work, community and world relationships, there are blocks keeping Peace from being possible.

Each time we feel less than peaceful with ourselves and others, let us ask ourselves what is blocking us from flowing into Peace.

Is it judgment, fear, ignorance, a righteous position we’re not willing to let go of?

Chances are it is one or more of these.

We all have blocks and resistance within us, and the power to let go, open up and flow into Peace.

I leave you with that, for a river is calling me to come sit and sing beside her on a rocky blanket.”

Share What Makes you Peaceful

Can you relate?  How do you walk through discord in yourself and arrive at peace?  What works for you?

I would love to know, so please share in the Comments.

Breathing, singing and transforming right along with you!

Originally published at Romancing the Genres.