I've had this hammered home to me lately, that if I want to manifest peace in the world, I have to find peace in my mind.
They say a peaceful mind makes a peaceful man. A peaceful man makes a peaceful family. A peaceful family makes a peaceful village. A peaceful village makes a peaceful country. A peaceful country makes a peaceful world.
Peace. Kindness. Sustainability. It's all the same to me.
But the point is this, I can get all caught up in writing this blog and my environmental work and, in a way, get seduced by it all.
Seduced, that is, away from the simple fact that I need to do what I need to do to keep a peaceful mind (it's meditation for me, but it could be prayer or sitting on the beach or watching the sunset or may other things for someone else).
I think I need to answer another email or make another phone call and that I don't have time to meditate. But I forget that the tenor of the phone calls and the emails all depend on what helps me keep a peaceful mind.
Then, it turns out, I can do harm.
So I need to remember, day by day, to work on my peaceful mind. If I want peace in the world, I must start by bringing peace to my mind.
Colin Beavan (that's me!) is now leading a conversation about finding a happy, helpful life at Colinbeavan.com. If you want to know how people are breaking out and and finding authentic, meaningful lives that help our world, check it out the blog here and sign up to join the conversation here.