How to live a peaceful worry-free life
Your first response to issues should not be panic
There is a connection between your peace of mind and your bodily health.
Scientific studies show that worry can cause the following:
Pain in your abdomen
Chest pain
Indigestion
Irregular breathing
Not being able to sleep
Headache
Dizziness
These are “basic” bodily disorders. There are other severe things excessive worry can lead to.
When you worry, you’re not at peace in your mind.
A basic dictionary definition describes worry as a disturbance of the peace of mind. Peace of mind is not basic. Don’t underrate it. It is core to human livelihood. You can age rapidly in your body when you always worry. You can go mentally crazy and not even know it. Some behaviors we term as our character, weakness, etc., are mental dysfunctions that may be traced to a lack of peace.
Worry is not some intangible thing. It is only intangible in this realm of form. Worry is real energy. It has a force. Literal force. Nothing spooky here. Lack of peace or worry can literally make people avoid you even if you never spoke a word. You just realize that people don’t want to associate with you. As a result, you could develop a coping mechanism in response to this dysfunction (rather than fixing it) and start saying, “Anyways, I just love being alone.”
Some of the cases of self-isolation can be traced to deep-seated worries and lack of peace. I’m not saying all self-isolation is a result of worry. I said ‘some.’
When you are someone who always lacks inner peace and joy, people may just dislike or hate you without knowing why. It is the energy you’re creating. It collides with their own force fields and then scares people away from you. This is what some men of God will see in someone and say, “There is a spirit of bad luck following you, and it’s making people run away from you, etc.”
Then they start prescribing all sorts of things. Meanwhile, all the person needs to do is learn to stop worrying and start cultivating peace of mind.
There is no spirit of any bad luck following anyone. If there are, you attracted them to yourself.
So, how do you deal with them?
Simple. Keep the house clean, and the flies will go away.
Proverbs 14:30, “A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body...”
There might be several things wrong in your body because your heart is always distressed. And don’t get me wrong, peace of mind is not a derivative of the absence of lack or trouble. I mean, peace of mind does not mean there is no problem in your life. Peace itself is a fruit of the Spirit.
Just as you can still have faith even when things are not working, or you can be praying for an issue for years, not seeing results yet, but still praying, that’s the same way you are to have peace even when you’re in the center of chaos.
So, first, you must agree that the presence of trouble is not a justification for a loss of peace.
As a believer, if you often lack peace of mind, it is a sign that;
Your belief system is faulty. There is something about God and his word that you do not yet understand. God’s word gives peace. I don’t know how else to put this.
Your local church does not teach the truth. Where you feed locally will reflect the kind of life you live. I once went to a church where I saw everyone happy and joyful. It was so palpable. They did everything from this joy: singing, praying, and evangelism. I said, ‘Wow, so people can be this joyful?’ Guess what, they didn’t have the best clothes or money. Some even had serious financial crises, but yet, it was like their peace of mind and their financial life were two different things. And truly they are.
Don’t underestimate where you feed from.
This may be a little overstretched, but I’ll say it anyway:
If you’re considering where to settle down, don’t think about work and career first; think about your local church first and then plan other things around it.
This may not always be the case at every season of your life, so it’s important to understand your exact season and know what God would want you focused on at that time.
You are low in your devotion. Your personal and collective commitment to reading God’s word, meditating, praying, and fellowshipping will tell how much peace of mind you enjoy.
Don’t underestimate meditation.
I’ve never seen anyone who practices deep meditation who does not have some form of inner peace, both in the world and in the church.
Meditation does not mean blanking out your mind.
Meditation is not anti-Christian. Most believers don’t meditate; that’s why they’re shallow and have issues being intentional. God said to Joshua, ‘Meditate on the law day and night.’
Paul said to Timothy, ‘Meditate on these things. Give yourself wholly to them.’
Meditation helps you sit in the stillness of your mind and communicate with the God you have become. Meditation helps you detoxify and cleanse your mind. Meditation helps you understand the scriptures and God. Meditation is where you grow your God-consciousness. Where you truly know what it is and how to remain still in times of trouble.
While learning stillness some years back, the Lord would often say to me, “Your first response to issues should not be panic.”
Yes, I’ve read it in God’s word, but this is reality staring at me. This is the time to transfer what’s in my head to my heart. So, I began to meditate more on the word and practice stillness. Many times terrible things will happen, and I wouldn’t know what to do. Then I’ll remember: don’t panic.
I’ll remain still and let the peace of God from within flood my heart. And there, right there, in that meditative state, I always got the answer of what to do. Sometimes the instructions received do not make sense, but I’ll do them still. Sometimes those instructions are humbling, but I’d know that this is the key to my sustained peace on that matter, and so I’d do it.
Friends, you will pass through life and never know what it means to live a conscious life from within until you start making time for intentional meditation. You may struggle to maintain peace in the face of terrible issues until you learn to be still and meditate and let the inner wisdom in you guide you.
I’m not saying there won’t be some mistakes here and there. Sure, we are in the ‘flesh.’
We can be weak and tired at times, but that’s not our default. That’s our abnormality.
You can look 10 times younger than you do now, I mean, literally, when you live a prolonged life of peace of mind. The troubles in the world will not stop because you’re a fine girl or a fine boy. In this time of intense hardship, you must learn to protect your heart and mind. Live in the peace and serenity of your heart. This is the gift money cannot buy you.
May we all find the grace to make those hard decisions that are for our peace, always.
Amen.