2018 Theme: Peace

During the month of December, Adventures with Amina spent 30 days focused on peace.  I loved this practice.  Not only did I feel much better everyday, I felt that I had more energy and was much happier. 

We are living in a time where there are many things that are not quite working.  It is a time for each of us to step up and bring our unique gifts to the world to make the world a better place for all.  However, we cannot do it from a place of judgment, anger or hurt - it is time to step up like we never have before from a place of love and peace.  This is much harder to do then stepping up from a place of anger or fear.

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For this reason, I decided to take the 30 day Peace Practice and continue it for another 365 days.  There have already been a number of times in the past 7 days where I have repeated, "I choose peace", to myself under my breath.  Trump's first tweet of 2018 was anti-Pakistan... that was a great test of my peace practice.  There are a number of times where we all feel like we are perfectly justified to be angry, however, it is not worth it.  You already know this.  I already know this.  We know that nothing good comes from a place of anger.  The good things come from a place of wanting to create something better.  That is empowering and powerful.  And, the only way to get to a place of creation is to believe that life is "fine" right now, but could be even better.  That is the juicy-zone.  The place of creation is a place of infinite possibility and a desire to make something better.  This is a positive, inspired place, not an anger-filled place.

In Islam, we are taught your intention is everything.  And, I have seen this in my own life.  Two people can take the exact same action, but one with a positive intention and the other with a negative intention and they have two very different outcomes.  The saying, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people, all of the time.  Your intention shows up before you do.  This year, I invite you to have one intention, to choose peace.  To have your thoughts, actions, and words align with peace.  Instead of having goals, I invite you to have one goal - to bring peace, and to be peace in every situation where you find yourself.  Wish peace on others and be an example of peace to all those around you.

One of the things I noticed about myself is how much I am able to get done.  I am highly effective.  But, in my getting it done,  I often lost my peace.  And, then all the kind things I was doing, went sideways.  I realized, it is not about what I am doing but who I am being.  This is a theme for me and one I talk of often.  It is not about the actions you take.  It is about the choice in a moment, when you feel justified to feel anything other than peace, to return to peace.  I choose peace.