Have Your Thoughts Brought You Inner Peace?

There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you. That criterion is, Have they brought you inner peace? If they have not, there is something wrong with them - so keep trying. - Peace Pilgrim

Peace Pilgrim was a woman dedicated to spreading peace throughout the U.S.   You can learn a lot more about her on the Internet.   She was an example of what a truly peaceful person can bring to the world.   So what she has said in the past, is something to which I pay attention.

Are my thoughts right for me?


Do you know that if I apply this question to my thoughts, most of them are not peace-filled nor peace bringing.   I am being honest.   This is really a sobering experience.

My mind is not training to have peaceful thoughts.   Some thoughts are very self-destructive, in that I concentrate on the things that I do not have, but that I want.   You may say there is nothing wrong with that.   Everyone does it.   But when is it too much?   When I focus on what I do not have, nor have power over, I get frustrated.   I am either sad that I do not have something in my life which I desire, or I get angry because I see other people have those things.   This is not peace.   I know that whatever I focus on, expands.   My feelings of frustration just grow as I focus on things that are frustrating.

Some other thoughts do nothing but preoccupy the silence in my mind.   They do not bring peace, but rather take a concept or thought and run with it, delineating it to the nth degree.   Again you might say what is wrong with that?   It is a matter of what the outcome of this kind of thinking turns our to be.   According to the quote above, if it does not add to the overall peace, I need to change my thoughts.   Try again.

If I see a way in which my Church can minister to those in need, I can think about it, reformulate it, look at it from different angles, posture, theorize, marshal resources in my mind, make plans, and at the end, decide that the way the church is doing something could definitely be improved.  How does this bring peace?   Have I told anyone.   Have a made a true contribution to making the church's ministry better.   Or was it just the mental gymnastics that I enjoy more than actually doing anything that would help to spread peace.  

Now I love to think.   I have said this several times in these blogs.   It has just struck me that even if my thoughts bring me frustration, sadness, anger, despair, depression, angst, conflict, that I still spend time thinking about them, that I must still love thinking these things, or love thinking period.  

When I think about the peaceful, loving experiences in my life, how I may bring peace, healing, love to others, or how others have brought those things to me, I am brought to a place, a thought, a mental construct of peace.   In this place of thought, I can most effectively share peace with others.  

Have your thoughts brought you inner peace?