The Five Creative Drivers Of Lasting Inner Peace

Recommended community-level interventions include:. Gender violence activists often emphasize that these problems are best solved through empowerment and community strengthening. While providing counseling for women victims of violence, MASUM also engages women and men in changing the community context.

As individuals, we need to recognize the extent to which all of us are interdependent. It behooves us to direct our energy and resources toward supporting, not harming, one another. The person we dismiss or even hate today may be connected in ways we don't realize to our own well-being.

You can make a tremendous difference by welcoming others into your life and community. This starts with gaining an awareness of those you may not have thought about who are new to the community, or simply new to you. They may be at work, at schools you or your children attend, down the street, or in isolated pockets of your community. Thirteen percent of people living in America were born outside the country American Community Survey estimate. What are their cultures, traditions, assets, and needs? How can you draw upon what they have to offer, ease their transitions, and help welcome them into the fabric of your community?

To learn the answer, you may have to reach out and extend yourself. You might start by going to events where you can learn more and offer assistance. The Center works to help refugees integrate and adjust to life in the United States through programs and services addressing social adjustment, education, health, and advocacy. Its services help refugees find housing, obtain food, and navigate the immigration process. With after-school programs for youth, the Center also provides assistance with homework, builds math and reading skills, and helps refugee students successfully integrate into the American school system.

Many of us must confront having been harmed, either directly or through a history of harms done to our family or people. There is a choice to be made: By separating the deed from the whole person, we can begin to forge connections and to heal. Empathy can arise when we acknowledge that we might have acted in a negative way under the same circumstances, or by recognizing that people are multidimensional and can change and grow. Below is a poignant example, of someone who chose to honor his fallen family members by forgiving their murderers.

The Forgiveness Project has gathered additional stories of victims and perpetrators who have traveled on the path toward forgiveness and reconciliation in an effort to encourage people to consider alternatives to resentment, retaliation, and revenge. Romain Ruringarwa is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. He was away at school, studying to be a priest, when the genocide broke out.

He returned to his village to find his parents, all eight of his siblings, and many other family members slaughtered by neighbors whom they had lived with throughout his life. He himself had to hide for several months in the bushes with other youth struggling to survive and avoid the carnage. In facing his deep loss, his heart would often fill with an intense anger.

At night, he would console himself by looking up at the stars hanging so brightly above him in the open air, and thinking of them being members of his family shining above him, a blanket of light and love keeping a safe watch over him. He would get himself to sleep by recounting the many rich stories they would tell him and the other children in the village about the stars. As Romain thought of his family, all he could remember was people who were full of love, not just for him but for others as well. They made every effort to help their neighbors. When thoughts of revenge came in waves upon him, he felt that such feelings drove away memories of his family.

As he weighed the future before him, he made a choice. He would honor his family, not by revenge — acting in kind in the same fashion as those who had committed such horrible deeds — but instead by compassion and working toward peace and reconciliation in the tradition of his family.

It was in many ways the harder choice; but it has been deeply fulfilling, as it keeps their memories alive and offers hope for a better future. Under this heading are some practical steps you can take to develop and promote peace in your community or region, and more examples you can draw upon for inspiration. We start with some peace-building actions one can take among neighbors, then consider what one can do to strengthen school programs and workplace initiatives, and lastly suggest ways to support policies that promote peace in your broader community.

Peace with neighbors starts with broader understanding. Simple actions can further such understanding. These can include holding interfaith discussions, organizing films or guest speakers to showcase approaches to peacebuilding, and gathering with neighbors to identify local issues and opportunities. Residents in local peace groups, whether organized independently or through schools or faith-based organizations, magnify individual efforts by identifying local issues in their community and tying these to an understanding of national and global issues of peace and justice.

Below are some activities groups have engaged in to advance peace:. One of the most rewarding methods for building community peace can be participation in interfaith gatherings and efforts to end religious intolerance. These types of events vary widely, and include small discussion groups; after-school programs where local youth can meet students from different religions; community gatherings to celebrate unity; and calls for greater religious tolerance issued jointly by diverse religious leaders.

It changed their lives. They wrote a book about the experience that has led to Faith Clubs arising in many cities.

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You can start your own faith club. At a broader level, many communities and states have interfaith councils or similar collaborating organizations. Such efforts are important, as U. In Birmingham, Alabama for example, a multi-faith, multi-racial organization called Greater Birmingham Ministries was established to pursue peace and justice in their community.

To do so, it unites people across racial, economic, political, and social identities to build working relationships among faith communities, businesses, civic groups, and social service networks.

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Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. Whether organizing a local community peace vigil, or larger symposia at universities or major international gatherings, it is important to gather together to advocate and showcase support for peace.

Whether as a student, parent, teacher, administrator, policymaker, or community member, there are any number of creative and powerful ways to support schools to effectively advance peace. Many effective models can be drawn upon. These can be embedded in the design of school systems, initiatives targeted to local needs and assets, ethics and peace curricula, and other services. Elements in school system design can start within a school's mission and vision and then range anywhere from graduation requirements e.

As examples, Quaker schools commonly provide a model of supporting students to follow a spiritual and ethical commitment to peace. A review of the nature, extent, and prevention of bullying conducted by Dr. Of concern is the widespread extent of bullying and that both bullies and victims are at high risk for negative short- and long-term consequences.

Shetgiri calls on clinicians to play a role in identifying bullies and victims, evaluating them for developmental conditions that might be risk factors, and providing resources and referrals as necessary. Effective bullying interventions embrace the entire school to create a culture of safety and support, engage and train teachers and parents, and are of enduring intensity and duration. Researchers have found that many types of less intensive anti-bullying programs that at first glance seemed promising resulted in only slight decreases in bullying and victimization.

Guidance and evidence-based approaches to addressing bullying are also available from the U. Department of Health and Human Services on its website: In addition, this website offers Bullying Prevention Training Modules, with tools and resources to organize effective prevention efforts in your community. Public and private schools of all types are also adopting systems of restorative justice.

Punishing and excluding students who violate school rules or harm others may be counterproductive, in that these actions can lead to further alienation and lack of opportunities; they may also hinder education, ultimately leading such children to higher rates of future incarceration.

In contrast, restorative justice has been very effective at improving school safety and safeguarding the futures of young people. It keeps students who conduct offenses in school, ensuring their accountability through restitution, and deals with underlying issues while supporting victims. Many schools use talking circles to bring together students, parents, faculty, and administrators to discuss and address incidents, with written commitments to resolve the harm. A justice that is not a battle ground but a healing ground.

A justice that seeks to transform broken lives, relationships, and communities rather than damage them further. In the aftermath of the well-publicized shootings in Columbine, the state of Colorado tried instituting a zero-tolerance school policy for youth who committed offenses, with mandatory expulsions. But they found this policy did not work, and only exacerbated problems among students.

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Watch this video to learn why some schools have turned instead to restorative justice for more effective solutions. How educational approaches are designed can be as important as implementation. Students themselves do not just present risks; they are valuable leaders and allies in promoting peace. As a first step to engage youth in peace-building, rather than simply holding an event and hoping that youth will join what you have planned, go to them first and see how you can build upon their interests and ideas.

You may be surprised by the resources they offer. Forming a Bookmakers and Dreamers Club , these young people, many from families in military service, decided they wanted to learn how to promote peace. They then launched a project to create the world's largest book, with peace as its topic. Working over many years to accomplish that goal, they were supported by a committed teacher, Betsy Sawyer, who helped them enlist others across the community. Parents, businesses, and area universities contributed expertise and resources.

The students gathered advice from hundreds of peace leaders, including Nobel Peace Laureates, to include in their book. Using new technology to print and turn the pages of such a large volume, the completed book has been showcased at the United Nations and other venues. In a related and widely-publicized effort, the Groton students also accepted the invitation of young persons in the Afghan Peace Volunteers to engage in peace discussions held via Skype conference calls. That initiative changed the lives of students, several of whom have now graduated and are pursuing careers advancing peace.

It also sparked important dialogue across the community on the importance of peace-building as a response to conflict. Several additional models and resources for promoting peace are available on the Peaceful Tomorrows and the Charter for Compassion websites. Schools can sign the Charter for Compassion and join others in shared commitment and resource-sharing. Also, the Teaching Tolerance Project offers free lessons, videos, toolkits, and other resources to promote tolerance and inclusivity in the classroom. Peace-building also involves awareness of the needs and assets of those in your group or organization, along with those in the community where you live or provide services.

Devote time to how you may address those needs and build upon existing assets. As one case in point, important models and guidance for businesses to address domestic violence, many of which can be applied to other forms of violence, are profiled in the workbook Interrupting the Cycle of Violence: Addressing Domestic Violence through the Workplace. By exploring these questions, you are likely to find ways to strengthen both your organization and your community impact. Many businesses, large and small, are realizing that a commitment to social responsibility not only contributes to strengthening communities, but also raises employee satisfaction and even increases the bottom line.

There are several ways that businesses have advanced peace in local and even in international contexts. One is to provide job opportunities for local youth during summer months — this is a proven strategy to reduce local crime and provide community advancement. A strong community is one that has integrated a commitment to advancing peace throughout its systems, policies, and initiatives. A strong partnership across sectors — including community agencies, local organizations, and businesses — underlies many peace-building efforts. Any such efforts should be shaped and driven by the contributions of community residents, which require early engagement and capacity-building to maximize their participation and leadership.

Below are some examples of community initiatives that exemplify peace-building in innovative ways:. An important focal area of policy to stem violence is policing and the criminal justice system. We must begin to realize that imprisonment is not where the solution lies. Many alternative models work to bring communities together to reduce violence. One effective model program for communities is the Advancement Project.

A few key elements of their approach include:. Restorative justice programs , mentioned above in the contexts of school delinquency, can also be applied to criminal justice as an alternative to incarceration. In a community context, restorative justice works proactively to promote safety across the community. It emphasizes aiding and protecting those who have been harmed, and requires restitution by responsible parties, effectively engaging them to become constructive members of society. To be most successful, restorative justice strengthens civic participation.

This can include promoting truthful crime reporting and testimony, participation in jury duty, identification of factors that facilitate or impede crimes, and other forms of public engagement. As proven crime reduction practices are adopted, safety improves. Domestic incidents of mass violence in community settings are defined as those in which three or more persons are killed. Such incidents occur almost daily in the United States; according to the American Public Health Association, over incidents were reported in alone.

Some factors associated with such incidents include terrorism, mental illness, and gang violence. Each is discussed below. Terrorism has been a factor in relatively few, if high impact, cases of mass violence. The Department of Homeland Security is engaged in a number of initiatives to advance community safety. Domestic terrorism has been perpetuated by extremist individuals and groups of different backgrounds. It is vital to distinguish violent extremists from the religions they claim to represent.

The Oklahoma City bombing was conducted by an individual claiming to be protecting Christian principles. Those responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in claimed to be protecting Islamic societies. Yet the vast majority of Christians and Muslims do not condone violence, and their adherents and leaders are great allies in combatting domestic terrorism.

Hate crimes against Muslims as well as those mistaken for Muslim, such as Sikhs , have risen dramatically following terrorist incidents. In the year of the September 11 attacks, the FBI reported anti-Muslim hate crimes; similar spikes have continued to occur. Communities can anticipate and help forestall these responses by educating their residents and holding interfaith activities to help prevent hate crimes and heal communities in the wake of incidents that may arise.

Ours is a country based upon tolerance and we welcome people of all faiths in America. Bush, Washington, DC, November 13, It is often assumed that perpetrators of mass violence suffer from mental health disorders. However, the American Psychological Association APA has noted that the vast majority of those suffering from a mental illness are not dangerous; rather it is a history of violence that poses the greatest risk factor for further such acts see text on domestic violence, above. The American Public Health Association APHA considers gun violence to be an epidemic that can be solved, as with Ebola or other public health threats, given adequate research and resources.

We like to point the finger at Big Tech for our permanent distraction, and that backlash is tentatively being reified through regulation and an ethical-design movement. But on a day-to-day personal level, unplugging from the digital world seems unfeasible, and people are turning to gadgets to get out of the hole.

The day after the presidential election, Headspace says, the use of its emergency-meditation feature spiked 44 percent. For Mikey Siegel, a figurehead for the "transformative technology" movement who founded the now-5, member San Francisco Consciousness Hacking community, the allure of fleeing technology is understandable but misguided. The philosophy embedded in much modern technology is efficiency and optimization; Siegel proposes that this is not inevitable and that these values can be divorced from our products. We don't necessarily have a tech addiction, only a productivity one.

Yet the closer you get to the front line of technology-assisted meditation, the more ironies abound. Cutting-edge devices not only hold your hand as you practice but also try to shunt you toward enlightenment more quickly.

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It's a paradoxical clash of a Buddhist acceptance of life's inherent instability and a tech culture of peak performance. Mindfulness preaches learning to live with pathologies; Silicon Valley, for the most part, wishes to zap them away. Where a traditional vipassana retreat can be run solely on donations, access to brain-hacking gadgets can run you into the thousands. Everyone wants a cut of the McMindfulness trend, but are the cultures of tech and mindfulness even compatible?

And as these questionable bedfellows grow closer and closer, who's going to change whom? Do not go to Sedona, Arizona, if you harbor skepticism toward any of the following: Here, New Age culture is as ubiquitous as the tourists en route to the Grand Canyon and the iconic regional red rocks. If those do pique your interest, however, so might the Biocybernaut Institute, which has been in the game of harnessing neurotechnology to supercharge enlightenment since long before it was Silicon Valley's favorite self-care routine. The claim is audacious: Check in for seven days, leave with a brain that looks like it's been practicing Zen meditation for 21 to 40 years.

It's not similar to, it is exactly like 21 to 40 years of Zen: Hardt founded the institute in , and it now has centers in Sedona, Canada and Germany and counts professional optimist, multimillionaire and life coach Tony Robbins among its endorsers. Think of it like an accelerated meditation retreat, souped-up on technology. Neurofeedback purports to work through basic Pavlovian conditioning.

The brain is hooked up to an electroencephalogram EEG via electrodes on the scalp that detect electrical activity. In order to incentivize that brain into firing in a specific way, the participant may, for example, listen to music. When the "correct" brain waves are detected, the music plays; when the brain is firing incorrectly it stops instantly. Soon, the brain, yearning for the reward of continuous music, subconsciously figures out how to make the real-time feedback loop continue. By giving participants visual and audio cues for their neural patterns, proponents of the technique claim to make subtle physiology conscious and therefore manipulable.

Hardt, with his mop of curls and tendency to wax eccentrically off topic say, on the wonders of "remote viewing" where one can be trained to close their eyes and travel in their mind's eye to a bunker in Moscow , cannot help but remind me of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka. He has worked in this field for the past 40 years, developing his seven-day program in , he said, adding that at the institute he sees participants' IQ increase 12 points, creativity increase 50 percent in his own studies and emotional quotient increase 16 points.

The "brain training" takes place in chambers for two hours at a time. Here, participants try to cajole their minds into producing alpha waves, associated with calm and creativity. Numbers and colors on a screen show whether their amplitude is going up or down. Participants then enter the "debrief room," a collection of couches and amethyst-colored fairy lights beneath a blue, tinsel-lined canopy. There are tissue boxes within reach of every seat. Here, they go through a step "forgiveness process," pinpointing traumas and resentments, though Hardt is keen not to call it psychotherapy or counseling.

Instead, it's a way to "systematically process negative emotion," said Aaron Brindger, the institute's director of marketing. I meet Georg Rosenblum in between her neurofeedback sessions. She's a year-old foster mother from California whose father passed away a week before her arrival. Rosenblum has dabbled in meditation before, but it's never stuck. In the neurofeedback chamber, though, "there's something about being hooked up and listening to the tones that makes my brain feel clear," she tells me, multicolored wires sprouting from her scalp like exposed nerve endings.

EEG works through electrodes that measure the brain's electrical signals from neurons firing beneath the scalp. It has been used safely for decades to diagnose disorders like Alzheimer's disease and narcolepsy. By correlating brain wave patterns with certain activities, researchers have also developed "mind controlled" prosthetic limbs, communication devices for people with locked-in syndrome and, on the more speculative side, three-person thought sharing.

The portability, noninvasiveness and low cost of EEG in recent years have also led to consumer devices that work with fewer electrodes and without gummy conductive paste. Hence the rise of sleek brain-scanning wearables for sleep monitoring, emotion sensing and, of course, mindfulness. Neurofeedback has been studied since the s, including for disorders like ADHD, PTSD, epilepsy and substance abuse, but the science is still patchy at best. There is even less research for neurofeedback's use in meditation. While academics -- such as those at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and University of Wisconsin-Madison -- have a decent idea what a meditating brain looks like under EEG or fMRI, it's a leap to associate that with a psychological state.

The presence of alpha waves in a monk doesn't mean those waves are causing them to be monk-like. And it doesn't mean one can reverse-engineer that state, essentially shoehorning one brain into the mold of another. Our measures, even though they've come a long way, are absurdly limited and very coarse, and it's nothing short of hubris to think that we have the right measures at this point in time that we should be providing feedback on. There are hundreds of meditative states, many of which don't affect alpha waves at all, Davidson said.

Even Siegel, who has completed the program, had his reservations. It's not the same as 40 years. Still, neurofeedback has become a major site of exploration for meditating technologists -- from Biocybernaut to the at-home device Muse slogan: Six weeks after we met, Rosenblum emailed: She had "major epiphanies" on her seventh day and was "really just enjoying life as a less reactive person.

More than three months later, she told me, "I'm not sure I would know what 21 to 40 years of meditation is, but I know before I arrived I couldn't even quiet my mind for two to three minutes. I am a happier, more content, less triggered person than before, and for that I will be forever grateful.

The thing is, people are biased toward what works for them -- or the thing they think works for them. If it gets them there -- and the app makers, wearable designers and retreat gurus surely know this -- then the question of how may be moot. For instance, a review of placebo surgeries -- i. Now imagine the subconscious incentive to feel results when you've spent five figures in the Sonoran Desert.

Ultimately, all the credentialed lab coats and replicable lab studies can count for little in our mind's scales compared to our personal n of one. To see why transformative technology is booming, therefore, requires looking beyond the proven science. It also helps to understand what brought these two apparently incompatible worlds of tech and Buddhism together in the first place. Chade-Meng Tan started life at Google as an engineer and employee No.

In , he launched Search Inside Yourself, a seven-week meditation course that has now expanded into an independent institute that teaches mindfulness to organizations like Ford and American Express. The initial key to getting wildly overworked Googlers on board, he said, was stuffing the practice into the Trojan horse of productivity and self-interest.

He sold it as "the science of emotion. They're so proud of being stressed," said Tan of his former co-workers. Meditation by now is fully ripened in Silicon Valley's culture. On a basic level, working tohour weeks requires some kind of release, and mindfulness is a data-validated, nonintrusive method of lowering your blood pressure.

Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment and meditation teacher. At the same time, the Bay Area's hippy lineage and culture of innovation mean unconventional solutions don't freak anyone out. Every challenge can be fixed, and that extends to the challenges of being human. It's taking a risk on something unproven for an extra advantage. Tan, a jovial and humble guy, joked that "people want to be successful, and they don't mind world peace.

Where stress reduction was once a byproduct of being a compassionate person, today it's the goal in itself. Psychologists like to talk about states versus traits: The former are temporary, the latter lasting. A lot of today's mindfulness tech is sold as inducing desirable states -- but so can DMT or porn. The traditional Buddhist would ask if these tools are making you kinder, more engaged in society, said Priyadarshi.

The idea of mindfulness was that the attitude would permeate your daily life and become a path to higher virtues. But we're a long way from Buddhism now: Priyadarshi has been asked to train military snipers. Joi Ito, the director of MIT's Media Lab who teaches a conspicuously low-tech class about mindfulness with Priyadarshi, put it this way: But it has also become like [progressive schooling method] Montessori: When you have a bunch of uptight parents, it isn't Montessori anymore.

Hacking inner peace

You must to be ok with whatever comes your way…as if you planned it that way. In that way, you can be in charge of your emotional well-being, and not be subject to others, things, or the world outside yourself to be happy or whole. We can move forward in a productive way and not to be hindered by inner angst. We can even learn to enjoy normal life events and change.

This will be your greatest spiritual journey ever. This is the breaking free process. Did you know that all problems are created in the mind? Yes, we create our own problems or disturbances. If you can be ok with whatever happens, then what do you think will happen to your unhappiness? Happiness can be learned. We all have habits that hold us back. What rules are holding you back? Happiness is a choice. You can decide to be happy and stick to it. Why not commit to being happy no matter what? Remember, the way out is through it.

That will just prolong your suffering. You must be willing to stay happy no matter what. Instead, take 3 conscious breaths and experience the feeling, feel the perceived threat of not being ok. You can separate yourself from them and observe them outside of yourself. In that way, you can start taking your rightful authority over what threatens your happiness, and not react. Relax, let it come up, experience it, and release it.

Keep your attention in your body, and out of your head as you allow it to pass. Remember, the price to break free is the cost of the pain the threat brings. As you practice releasing the threat, the unhappiness will show up less often until it dissolves. Why not give yourself the gift of happiness this year? Be good to yourself, so all the love and happiness will flow out into the world for all to receive.

Do you allow others to talk to you the way you let your inner critic talk to you?

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How often do you notice your inner critic making self-rejecting judgments or bullying you? W hat is your bully saying to you? Below are some examples of common self-judgments that come from our inner critic. We can take back that authority and peace of mind that are rightfully ours. First, what is this inner critic anyway? An inner critic is that inner critical voice in your head that is judging, bullying and rejecting you. This judgment is a result of the false beliefs and negative thoughts we have about ourselves and the meaning we attach to them.

These false beliefs create the thoughts that are reflected in our emotions and in our physical body. These thoughts can turn into negative experiences such as anger, sadness, stress, resistance, and emotional reactions. Remember, most of our thoughts are random, repetitive, and not helpful. Over time, these critical thoughts can take over and run or even ruin our lives if we let them. Getting to know your inner critic is an important part of growing greater self-awareness to overcome false beliefs and negative thoughts. When we judge ourselves in this way, we experience negative emotions, and then we often act on them or react by being apathetic to our own self-care.

Our physical health suffers as a result. Did you know that our primary job is to protect our own emotional well-being? When this negative self-talk goes unchecked for so long, it can steal our happiness and inner peace. I changed this in my life and so can you. Usually judgment falls into two categories that separate us, e. As a result, we tend to hang on to the critical part in our stories from the past and notice our shortcomings the most.