Inner Peace...

[Clockwork Ghost]

On a more serious note, what do people here do to attain a sense of inner peace? I personally use mindfulness meditation, focussing on the present over the mistakes of the past or the worries of the future. How about you guys? What rituals or acts of meditative contemplation do you employ to keep yourselves getting up each morning?

[Nahemah]

I split this post into a new topic for you ,as it is another discussion,seperate and serious,though linked with my joke post. [thumbup]

[Rin]

The closest I come is generally when I'm surrounded by nature and able to still my thoughts enough to focus on the present instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

[Vashta]

This is a simple one, not really terribly magickal, but helps get your inner peace, I learned it at a stress-management CBT class. It's a basic breathing exercise for stressful moments.

Inhale fairly deeply, think the phrase "I'm in control" (Or something soothing like "Everything is cool")
Exhale, thinking the word "Relax"

Although, the phrase "I'm in control" depends on the individual I think. I wasn't comfortable using the phrase "I'm in control" as I don't really believe in control, so I substituted for "Everything is cool". Feel free to customise it to suit your personality. Repeat this around 10 times.

I do find that thinking the word "Relax" as you exhale is in fact quite relaxing.

This exercise is just a little thing you can do any time of the day or night, any place, without any tools, to help calm your mind. I was attending the stress management class because I've been suffering daily headaches for a while now, but using this breathing exercise with some regularity has brought my headaches down to a manageable level, so I'm emphatically recommending it

[weezyfosheezy]

All I see is treat the symptom not the problem which will never lead to true inner peace. True inner peace means you do have to meditate, or anything, and no matter what life throws at you, you are just at peace. Doesnt matter what you have, what you do, or what others do to you, you are at peace As being a life goal of mine (I think a lot of other people would benefit from searching for it) I'll give my 2 cents which is a brief exert from a lifetime of lessons.

Inner peace comes from your past and previous experiences:
-When you hold a grudge you are disturbing your inner peace.
-When you accept something as unfair you are disturbing your inner peace.
-When you focus on one facet of your life you are disturbing your inner peace (I learn that one by a super hard way)
-When you treat someone differently as a intrinsic blessing on this earth inner peace is disturbed.
-Give everything all you got so there are no regrets or no "What if".

Basically those are big ones and there are many many more. Basically you must look within for the answers are there; some people find the answer to all of these questions in God or Jesus and actually reach inner peace through believing. Some people can find it believing there is no God, because then they are in 100% control over their lives and can reach the same phenomena that way. And every point in between the two can be acceptable if they make progress towards your goal (must be your goal). There are infinite path to inner peace and finding it is one of the hardest thing in life to do, but well worth it as long as you dont just drop dead and cant enjoy it.

Once the past is dealt with and how ones personality seems to change and their present doesn't seem to add to the disturbance in inner peace, but until that point every single moment in your life could be a moment as a test or as something to strengthening your own peace and hope one day be able to live with inner peace, but there is so much work to do.

[Phronesis]

True peace comes when the various forces in man become reconciled within himself. This, really, is the work of Theurgy, and Peace is one of the five goals or aims of the initiate. In the popular Hermetic traditions, one first balances the elemental energies within himself, then the zodiacal energies, and finally the planetary energies, so that all work harmoniously with each other and remain in balanced proportion. All emotions, concerns, and worries are due to energies pushing and pulling the various bodies of man this or that way; when they work harmoniously and do not fight, so to speak, then peace ensues. That's why the Adept is always known by his tremendous peace under any circumstance. I should mention that this is not a peace that most people know of; it's on an entirely different level, and has to do with the Adept living each moment immersed in complete union with the universe, in his waking life.

There are many ways to attain it, and many different exercise regimes to achieve it with. Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Hermetics, etc.

As far as a surface level peace, any sort of thought control exercise, mindfulness meditation, or basic pranayama (breath control) will eventually bring it each morning. It will, of course, fade during the day, until the internal energies have been rectified as I discussed above.

[reptilian]

Despite my enthusiasm for Buddhism and Taoism, inner peace doesn't exist in my world. I don't even bother looking for it anymore.

[Stukov]

I don't know if this is really an answer to the OP, but I suppose just take it as an offshoot of the topic, but "inner peace/one with self" is overrated. I've had it, when I was younger, and while there is reason to get to that point, far too many see that as the final destination rather than one part of a journey. The feeling is both calm and blissful, but it entirely deviates from the natural law of balance. Just as you look up into the upper right corner where there is a version of the yin/yang, you have many people (especially interested in the occult) who believe and try to only "bathe in the light and in love", so much so they suppress or disassociate from the "darker/rage/hate" part of themselves that, as has happened in the past, it actually causes a spiritual split into two different beings. Their failure to balance the entirety of themselves creates a being knowing only what they discard "darkness/rage/hate/etc" and is then let loose to wreck carnage unchecked.

My tired morning rant.

[adawehi]

The question is an open ended one. It depends on the circumstances surrounding the turmoil. If it's money problems the problem solves itself. If I'm broke, I'm broke. The bill has to take a number and wait in line like everyone else. If someone has irked me at work I use patience. Payback always happens and normally I don't have to lift a finger to help it along. It happens all by itself. Health problems is a sticky one for me. We're both disabled and in some states the Government offers about as much as they did in the old torture chambers, Under these circumstances I make a proper introduction of myself face to face if possible to whomever, apprise the individual/s of my failure to be subservient or bashful and will not go away, then suddenly find several avenues opening up to me for help. For other things that I have no control over as of yet and just need to think I simply prop my feet up and stare at the woods that faces my bay window. I'll sit and watch the birds we feed, watch the occasional deer, chipmunks and squirrels play.