Inner Peace

My day started out a bit distressing, because we had a power outage. I had to make a quick call to the electric company to report my service was interrupted.

The weather has been unusually warm for this time of the year and I plan to do some errands today. Since my cat has been very distracting and needing my attention, I decided to take him with me. He’s house broken, but loves it when I take him outdoors. I take him outside because I want him to stay familiar with the environment. I feel like the television character “Sheena” when we’re traveling together. He’s so sweet and stays by my side.

Yesterday, while I worked on my projects and played my meditation tapes, I observed him. The tapes that I was playing have nature and animal sounds embedded in the music. When he heard the animal sounds, he sat up and moved his ears. After a while, he began to roam around. My home is his domain and even though he knows there aren’t any other animals living here, he loves to scout around investigating. I am aware that he is fine-tuning his hearing, sense of smell and regularly patrols his kingdom.

While I was traveling with him, I mimicked his behavior. I observed my surroundings more keenly. I am developing my inner strength and exercised a few techniques.  While I was waiting for the bus to arrive at the bus shelter, I noticed a man had approached the area just outside of the shelter. I observed the way he was dressed and watched his nonverbal body language. The bus was not due to arrive soon and I decided to walk further down the street to another shelter to wait.

I did this, because I am mentally preparing to detoxify my body. I plan to drink plenty of green tea and eat lots of fresh fruit to help flush my body of toxins. It’s the cold season, and I need to build up my immune system to counteract any respiratory tract infections. I regularly boil my tap water and keep a pitcher filled in the refrigerator at all times. During the winter months, there’s always a water main break in the city and when it happens the water pipes emits contaminated water. Our local newscasters often inform us when to boil our tap water. Since this happens so often during the winter, I’ve kept up my routine of boiling my tap water throughout the year.

Also, you can read information about the benefits from drinking green tea at the following link: http://shine.yahoo.com

While doing my errands, I enjoyed the fresh air and the exercise felt good. My cat is sleeping now, and he’s much calmer. I feel refreshed and have more energy to concentrate on my projects.

Learning to improve your concentration will enable you to keep out distractions.  I am learning to develop my mental stamina and build my inner strength. 

While I am sitting here writing this article, my cat is wandering around my home whimpering.  For some reason, he likes to play in his litter box.  He constantly scratches the plastic dome and the sound is very irritating.  I was puzzled by this daily routine and it took me sometime to understand his mannerisms. 

For the past few months, I usually begin my day sitting in my computer room working on my personal projects.  I enjoy what I am doing and I don’t watch the clock.  I work very long hours until late at night or early morning.  My little puss, watches over me and right now he is annoyed.  He loves my attention and thinks he is human.  He often follows me around my home, and is aware of the fact that he will get my attention faster when is being a brat.  When I am typing at my computer, he hears the clacking sounds of the keyboard. He then creates a distraction by scratching on the dome of his litter box.

I usually call his name and leave my computer room to chase him away.  Today, I finally realized he was mimicking my daily behavior.  He was complaining loudly that I wasn’t giving him the attention that he needed.  I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.  Later, he jumped on my computer desk and I petted him.  Several times each day, I reinforce his well being by talking to him and stating, “Mommy loves baby.”  

I normally use short sentences when I speak to him and also say, “You’re such a good baby.”  This year, I expanded his knowledge by explaining the meaning of Christmas to him.  I normally decorate my home and when I light the tree, he stares at it with a puzzled expression on his little face.  I spoke to him using words that he was familiar hearing. Later, when I spoke to him and said the word, “Christmas!” with enthusiasm, he would pounce on me. I knew he was comprehending and acknowledging that he understood. 

He’s sleeping now, and my mind is beginning to relax again.  I am mentally alert and aware of his needs.  I’ve decided to change my daily routine by forcing myself to leave my computer room more often.  So, instead of playing my mediation CD’s and pressing the repeat button on my player, I’ve decided to listen to my older mediation tapes while I work on my projects.  

Today and each day hereafter, I will refresh, restore, rejuvenate and relax my mind.  My mental cleansing regime is simple, effective and lasting. 

During my college days, I was sleep deprived and experienced mental burnout from intensive studying.  I pursued an education in computer technology.  Learning to program and design software applications is a challenge.  My classmates constantly asked our professors, “How do you expect us to keep up with the assignments?”  The technology industry was changing and at an excelerated rate.  I watched my classmates drop out of programming classes with tears filled in their eyes.  These students were told by the professors that they didn’t have it.  Some students changed their majors and others said that they would learn on their own.

My biggest problem was feeling anxious most of the time.  When I tried to sleep, I often had insomnia.  During times when I needed to cram for an exam, I lacked the mental energy.  I had heard rumors about students experimenting with drugs to help them keep up with their assignments.  Frankly, I’ve always felt that this was the most asinine decision they could have made, and were defeating their purpose of self-improvement.

I sought other ways than the above-mentioned to relax my mind.  I read books on meditation and bought musical tapes that promised to alter your state of mind and to induce relaxation.  I even read psychology books and articles on using color to change your mood.  I experimented with aromatherapy and homeopathy techniques.  I was able to improve my state of mind and comprehended my studies at a greater level.

During my adolescent years, I was playful, curious, creative and talkative, when I was in the company of my family.  When I began grade school, I enjoyed learning new things, but I was shy, very sensitive and didn’t make friends readily.  I watched my classmates from afar and didn’t engage in conversations with them. 

While I was growing up, my parents taught me to be more independent.  My mother words of wisdom and kindness helped me to overcome my sensitivities.  Today, I appreciate my mother’s devotion to religion, but during my early teenage years, I was at odds with her.  We regularly attended church on Sundays, enjoyed the pastor sermons, members and activities.  My mother taught bible study at home and her mannerisms were strict.  We didn’t understand her assertiveness, because her teachings made us feel uncomfortable. 

During my childhood, my family learned to get by on very little and each year, we celebrated Christmas.  I was always surprised by the christmas presents that my parents managed to give us.  Looking back over the years, my parents had bouts of psychological weakness and this affected us deeply.  We were too young to understand and recognize that their inner strength was fading.  During these difficult times, my siblings and I were torn by their actions and we longed to abandon our home.  My mother showed signs of depression and was very despondent towards us.  We clung to our mother for emotional support and guidance.  We felt lost without her attention, because she was such a strong willed person.  She taught us to fight oppression by using our minds and leaned on us heavily. 

When she showed signs that she was feeling emotionally stronger, we rejoiced and did things to show her how much we loved her.  We became more responsible, independent and didn’t grumble as much, when she asked us to pitch in with the household chores.  My mother, the lioness was once again, playful and warm.  We were her little cubs and she protected us fiercely.  

I have read several books and articles on ways to find inner peace. This invaluable information has helped motivate me to pursue my short and long-term goals. Before I elaborate on the knowledge that I have gained, I would like to share my personal feelings with you regarding improving your inner strength.  First of all, I believe that you can achieve your goal to inner peace by improving your health.  Your state of mind is very important and safe guarding your health will help you to concentrate, as well as build stamina. 

For example, when I think about my health during my twenties and thirties, I was not as healthy as I am today.  My diet was poor and I frequently had respiratory illnesses.  Also, while I was in my thirties I felt the need for a career change.  I worked during the day and attended college during the evening.  My schedule was demanding and hectic.  There were times that I had more mental energy than physical energy or vice versa. I longed for more hours in the day and felt deprived of sleep.   I often felt sluggish and tired.  I decided to take my health more seriously and exercised regularly to reduce my weight.  I pursued a healthier diet and took vitamins daily.  After several weeks, I noticed that I had more energy, felt mentally alert and physically stronger.

While dieting, I increased my will power, resisted the temptation to over eat and learned to say “No.”  At the time, I did not realize that I was building my inner strength, because my mind was focused on my physical appearance.  Each time that I denied myself an indulgence, I was learning to take charge or control my eating habits.  I was developing and achieving my goal towards inner peace.