Your imagination is one of the most powerful parts of you.

Everyone now alive on this earth, and for generations before us, has lived during a time of war. We are programmed from the start to imagine war, and to believe that we have no power over its inevitability.

Learning to slow down to have more space.

I’ve always been a bit fiery and fast moving, and I'm not the most patient of souls sometimes. These are some of the things I'm working on adjusting for myself. I get stuff done, but it's more fun for me if I remember that what's most important is the spirit I bring along with me. I'd like to be operating more from a place of inner peace and relaxation, in other words, trust.

The days I rush through my morning daily practice, (meditation etc.) because I convince myself that I'm too busy or over scheduled, I feel it.

Peace is a quality of life issue.

Peace is a creative, living energy. True peace isn’t static – there is constant movement and growth in its creation. When we decide to make peace a choice, we can choose it again and again.

Having a passion for this healing vibration means you can create from an experience of having peace, rather than in response to war. What if peace were much more than just not fighting?

On my first visit to Europe, I saw the Berlin Wall and both Berlins up close, and had an important lesson in unity.

Two friends and I went on a month long journey throughout Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. It was December 1986, I had just turned 28, and I was ecstatic to see the world. We planned to be in Germany for Christmas and the New Year, and to travel to East Berlin for a couple of day trips while we were staying in West Berlin. This meant going to the other side of the Berlin Wall, through the Iron Curtain. That wall, that dividing line inside of Germany, was a sharp reminder of not only a horrific war, but the many divisions human beings create between themselves in daily life.

You have the power to create peace in your world.

Perhaps you don’t think that you have any power when it comes to making peace happen in your lifetime, but you do, and it all begins within you. How does it work? It all begins with the energy you choose to bring along.

You already know that you are affected by the energy of other human beings, both positively and negatively. What other people choose to bring with them, will affect the environment you are in.

Do you see your body as a ‘frienemy’?

You may have believed a lie about your body. Perhaps the lie is that it’s flawed, too thin, too fat, or just not right somehow. You may not fit into the perfect ideal presented constantly in our culture, everywhere you look. You may believe that your body is wrong, and so you fight with it, every day.

You may believe that the spirit is superior to the body, and so you leave your body to fend for itself, without listening to its cries for attention.

Being peaceful is easier than it seems.

We think it has to be hard to have peace, but it can be this simple. If you want to see peace on this earth, in your city, and in your lifetime, create peace within yourself, and carry it with you wherever you go. By your example, others will see that they can do this too. You bring them the gift of peace. 

You become an inspiration for this healing because of your own commitment to healing from the wars that rage constantly on this planet, and have done so for much of human history.

Wouldn't it be nice to live your life without worrying about other people's opinions and judgments all of the time?

What if you didn’t care what others thought about you? Can you imagine the freedom you'd create for yourself by not caring about or needing other people's approval? If you lived unconcerned about the judgment coming from others who have a strong opinion about what everyone else needs to be doing, you'd create a lot more peace within yourself. If you don't give the gossip and uncomfortable judgments a place to land, they can't spread very far.

On this first day of a new year and decade, I'm inspired to share one of my favorite quotes about the political act of optimism.

Being optimistic, especially in times of darkness and uncertainty, helps us evolve and grow. Conscious optimism is a vibration of energy to embrace in 2020.

Optimism is an act of the spirit, a conscious choice. Being optimistic doesn't mean that we don't face the reality of current events, it means we don't allow ourselves to be beaten down by those events. Instead, we do our work, we show up, we grow, give, love, heal, and forgive. Only in this way do we create consciously.

Gentleness is sometimes mistakenly interpreted as weakness.

To a culture that prides itself on its show of strength, people who prefer to work in a gentle way are seen as being weak: unable to protect, defend, or fight for themselves. The prevailing wisdom in our modern American culture is that might and violence are necessary to 'save the day' and get things done.

Non-violence, to this belief system, is considered weakness, and therefore completely unable to create positive change.

It isn’t all that difficult to create an atmosphere of peace on earth.

Each of us can do this, daily. When you and I carry the energy of peace along with us, we’re bringing healing energy wherever we go. This becomes a gift to whomever we see, whether we know them personally or not.

Not only that, but each of our individual loads is lighter as a result of choosing to carry peace along on our daily travels. This is because peaceful energy is a much lighter and brighter vibration than non-peaceful energy. Peace is a conscious energy.

Do you have the nerve to demand peace from yourself?

People who have the desire to end their inner wars, will be on the front lines of peace. The fight for peace begins within each of us. When you declare a ceasefire within yourself, you bring a peaceful vibration with you everywhere you go. It can be that easy, and there’s no need to be in effort at all.

There is a catch. The hard part is that you actually have to do it. It’s easy to set new intentions, and another thing entirely to do whatever difficult soul searching work it takes to carry them out.