Breathe; Let Go; Relax; Forgive - and Smile

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you find peace within yourself,
you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.
- Peace Pilgrim

If in our daily life we can smile,
if we can be peaceful and happy,
not only we, but everyone will profit from it.
This is the most basic kind of peace work.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Breathe; let go; relax; forgive.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

It's not the situation that's causing your stress,
it's your thoughts,
and you can change that right here and now.
You can choose to be peaceful right here and now.
[Inner] Peace is a choice,
and it has nothing to do with what other people do or think.
- Gerald Jampolsky

No one can find inner peace except by working,
not in a self-centered way, but for the whole human family.
- Peace Pilgrim

Further reading: Focus on Peace

A Life of Harmony

Bring Peace

Forgiveness: Path to Inner Peace

Choose Inner Peace

The War Within Yourself
    

Creating Peace Takes EFFORT - Peace is NOT the Default State of the World

No one can find inner peace except by working,
not in a self-centered way, but for the whole human family.
- Peace Pilgrim

Let there be peace on earth.
And let it begin with me.
- Jill Jackson Miller

Stop! Breathe deeply.
Begin bringing peace to the outer world
by regaining your own inner peace.
Choose love, choose gratitude,
choose forgiveness, choose peace.
Begin with your own inner peace.
Then use that inner peace
as a platform from which
to approach the outer world
with perspective, understanding, and patience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Peace IS the Way

Do God's Work

End Hatred

No War
      

Fully Experience THIS Moment

Fully experience THIS moment -
breathe in, breathe out - nothing more.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious
privilege it is to be alive -
to breathe,
to think, to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius

Be Here Now
- Ram Dass

He who can give thanks for little
will always find he has enough.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Nurture Yourself Today

Give Thanks

Gratitude and Life

Be Fully Present in TODAY
     

Try the Inner Smile Exercise

 

Although it is always better to live with conviction and enthusiasm,
some days it is better just to go through the motions than to do nothing.
Smile even when you feel grumpy.
Meditate or Pray even when you have nothing to say to God.
Cook a healthy meal even when you are tired.
Walk or exercise even when the thought doesn't excite you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Act the way you'd like to be
and soon you'll be the way you act.
- Leonard Cohen

Repeat anything often enough
and it will start to become you.
- Tom Hopkins

A smile that begins as an effort and a pretense
quickly grows to become genuine,
and given time, a habit of happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Inner Smile Exercise:
1. Close your eyes.
2. Breath slowly, deeply, and consciously.
3. Set the corners of your mouth in just the slightest smile.
4. Visualize your smile growing larger and larger, and your happiness increasing.

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Grin your smile; giggle your laugh; unfurl your joy

Practice makes perfect - sometimes 

Tending the Garden of Our Lives

Overcome Being Negative
     

Forgiving Another Grants YOU Peace

 

Give yourself the gift of forgiving others,
not because THEY deserve it,
but because YOU deserve the serenity and joy
that comes from releasing resentment and anger.
Unconditional forgiveness is the path to your own inner peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today, I say yes to forgiving.
I commit to being for-giving love and for-giving compassion in all areas of my life.
– Sheri Rosenthal

A wise man will make haste to forgive,
because he knows the true value of time,
and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
- Samuel Johnson

I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Further reading: Happiness
    

Serenity, Courage, Wisdom

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (Serenity Prayer)

There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- the character Morpheus in the movie The Matrix

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding:
you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.
- Charles Kettering

Know the power of perspective.
Be a passionate observer of life.
See the events, feel the emotions,
and recognize the difference.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  More About the Serenity Prayer

Great Truths

Consciously Choosing Your Truth

Different and Yet the Same
      

Free Your Mind, Become Centered

 

Breathe deeply and slowly.
Let yourself become centered - shut out all distractions.
Breathe out your worries; empty your body of regrets and resentments.
Breathe in eternal peace; let your body fill with unconditional love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Breathe; let go; relax; forgive.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others,
is stronger than any physical force in the universe.
- Wayne Dyer

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.
- Zhuangzi

Further reading: Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

Forgiveness: Path to Inner Peace

Breath by Breath

Gratitude for THIS Moment
   

Don't Get Distracted from what is Real

 

The monsters are in your own head.
- Paula Cole

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind.
Much is Not as it Appears to be.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Rattlesnake of the Mind" is a metaphor inspired by the Zen term, "Monkey Mind," which refers to the mind's tendency to invent an unending sequence of creative stories about everything we see and hear.

Life does not consist mainly,
or even largely, of facts or happenings.
It consist mainly of the storm of thoughts
that is forever flowing through one's head.
- Mark Twain

If you want peace, stop fighting.
If you want peace of mind,
stop fighting with your thoughts.
- Peter McWilliams

You are not your mind. You, a Spiritual BEing,
are neither your mind nor your body.
Mind and body are your tools - to use as you choose.
Sometimes your body appears to have a will of its own,
as when it twitches or pains.
Likewise, your mind often appears to have its own will.
That incessant chattering of regret, disappointment, guilt,
shame, foreboding, worry, and fear
is your Rattlesnake Mind striking off on its own.
Know that your mind can be a vicious rattlesnake, and be cautious.
The mind can be tamed, but only with conscious effort and patience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Still Your Mind

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan
      

Seek Internal Peace

 

Today's affirmation:
I am at peace with myself,
and with all that is.

Each one has to find his peace from within.
And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances
but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.
- Joy Page

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Guide our feet into the way of peace.
- Luke 1:79

Further reading: Highest and Innermost God

Life Without Stress

Experience This Moment

The Enemy Within
     

Commune With Your Inner Silence

Everything is God
- don Miguel Ruiz

To be at one with God is to be at peace...
peace is to be found only within,
and unless one finds it there,
he will never find it at all.
Peace lies not in the external world.
It lies within one's own soul.
- Ralph W. Trine

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself,
and know that everything in life has purpose.
There are no mistakes, no coincidences,
all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Don't seek God in temples.
He is close to you.
He is within you.
Only you should surrender to Him
and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.
- Leo Tolstoy

You don't look out there for God, something in the sky,
you look in you.
- Alan Watts

Surrender to a Higher Power is a central tenet of 12-step programs,
and is the key to recovering from depression, worry, and fear as well.

Today's affirmation:
When I see Spirit in everything, Peace is at hand.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Breath by Breath

How to Cope With Life

How to Forgive and Move On

Alcoholism in a Relationship - When to Stay, When to Leave
      

Perspective, Understanding, Patience

 

Begin with your own inner peace.
Then use that inner peace
as a platform from which
to approach the outer world
with perspective, understanding, and patience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is those who have a deep and real inner life
who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.
- Evelyn Underhill

We're so engaged in doing things
to achieve purposes of outer value
that we forget the inner value,
the rapture that is associated
with being alive, is what it is all about.
- Joseph Campbell

The outer conditions of a person's life will always
be found to reflect their inner beliefs.
- James Lane Allen

Further reading: Master of My Emotions

What Really Matters

Your Attitude is Your Window

Renewal

Mastering Time

Life Really Is Good
      

It's Hard Work To Create Peace

 

Peace doesn't just happen.
Peace must be "made,"
and it's hard work to make Peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Peace is not an absence of war,
it is a virtue, a state of mind,
a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
- Baruch Spinoza

It is not enough to say we must not wage war.
It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

The world has always been in an uproar, and it always will be.
Choose Peace. Choose to live with Peace.
Choose to interact peacefully with everyone -
especially those whose instinct is not to be peaceful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Peacemakers

Love All, Judge None

Hatred vs. Love
     

Choose Charity, Acceptance, Love

 

Definition of "Affirmation" as used here: "Something that may not be true yet, but that I want to be true (usually about myself) and that I am working to make true."  For example, "Every day, I repeat the same positive affirmation of my worth as a person."

The following are all positive affirmations...

Today I choose the higher road -
the path of charity, acceptance,
love, selflessness, kindness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am not a slave to my thoughts or emotions.
- Richard Carlson

I rest in the light of forgiveness.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

I am one with the power and wisdom of the Universe.
I have all that I need.
- Louise L. Hay

I come to life with an Open Mind,
Clean Hands, and a Loving Heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Standing in the inspiring vision of my future,
I boldly take every step - large and small -
with courage and intent.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am at Peace with myself,
my family, my community, and the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every day in every way I am getting better and better.
- Anonymous

Please take a look at my collection of positive affirmations, and consider subscribing to receive one each day.
www.jonathanlockwoodhuie.com
        

Breathe Consciously

 

Breathe deeply and slowly.
Let yourself become centered - shutting out distractions.
Breathe in eternal peace; let your body fill with unconditional love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

At the center of your being you have the answer;
you know who you are and you know what you want.
- Lao Tzu

A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others,
is stronger than any physical force in the universe.
- Wayne Dyer

When you become centered, suddenly there is great freedom
because you know you are not the mind and you are not the body.
- Osho

Further reading: Five 30-Second Emotional Releases to De-Stress at Work
     

Practice Stillness and Mindfulness

 

To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu

Being wakeful in each and every moment of your life is meditation.
The simplest definition of meditation is:
when seeing, just see; when hearing, just hear.
- Josh Baran

Walking is Zen, sitting is Zen.
Then what will be the quality?
Watchfully alert, joyously unmotivated,
centered, loving, flowing, one walks.
And the walking is sauntering.
Loving, alert, watchful, one sits, unmotivated -
not sitting for anything in particular,
just enjoying how beautiful
just sitting doing nothing is,
how relaxing, how restful.
- Osho

To manage your mind,
know that there is nothing,
and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness.
- Lao Tzu

"Beginner Mind" is a Zen Buddhist term
that describes moving past our assumptions
of the nature of our life,
and really SEEING our surroundings -
especially the people we interact with -
with new eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Managing Your Wayward Mind

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Opening Your Mind

The World is a Paradox

Stay Adaptable
    

Choose Inner Peace

 

The world has always been in an uproar, and it always will be.
Choose Peace. Choose to live with Peace.
Choose to interact peacefully with everyone -
especially those whose instinct is not to be peaceful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely
as small as what you allow to annoy you.
- Robert Anton Wilson

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances
but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.
- Joy Page

Choose Inner Peace.
Nothing is worth losing your inner peace.
Take action as circumstances require,
but never surrender your inner peace.
Stop. Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply again.
Then, and only then, take action -
from a peaceful heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,
even if your whole world seems upset.
- Saint Francis de Sales

Further reading: Have Gratitude for THIS Moment

Slow Down and Focus

Focus on Peace

Kick Back
    

Simplify Your Life

 

Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

As you simplify your life,
the laws of the universe will be simpler;
solitude will not be solitude,
poverty will not be poverty,
nor weakness weakness.
- Henry David Thoreau

If thou wilt make a man happy,
add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
- Epicurus

What if happiness were found in the serenity of simple pleasures.
What if we didn't need the newest gizmo... the highest high?
What if happiness is in the air we breathe...
slowly, deeply, and consciously?
What if happiness is one fresh grape, savored with gratitude?
What if happiness is in our oneness with all creation?
What if happiness is about enjoying life exactly as it comes to us -
without chasing after it?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To live a pure unselfish life,
one must count nothing as one's own
in the midst of abundance.
- The Buddha

Further reading: Bounty of the Earth

Simple Life

Giving of Yourself
    

In solitude the mind gains strength

 

Spend some time alone every day.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy
is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet,
alone with the heavens, nature and God.
Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.
- Anne Frank

A quiet mind cures all.
- Robert Burton

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.
- Laurence Sterne

Affirmation: Today, I Will Spend Time Alone and In Silence.

Further reading: Solitude is a Cure

Choose Inner Peace and a Less Stressful Life

Be an Open Channel

Let me bring peace

The Beat of the Universe
     

Find a Reason to be Happy TODAY

The key to happiness is not to have what you want
but to want what you have.
- Anonymous

Happiness is when what you think, what you say,
and what you do are in harmony.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You can not find happiness by chasing after it.
Happiness comes from doing what you love to do,
and from being who you truly are.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- Zhuangzi

The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer.
The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy.
Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety.
It is a long succession of little decisions
simply to be happy in the moment.
- J. Donald Walters

You don't need a reason to be happy,
just a choice.
Happiness is the Choice to be Happy in This Moment
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

One can flow harmoniously with the River of Life -
or one can struggle fearfully against the River -
and the River just flows.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Simple Pleasures

How to be Happy in Life by Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

Choose To Be Happy
      

The Woods Speak

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
- Henry David Thoreau

Let today be a day to spend time alone in nature.

Take a walk as far from the hustle and bustle of society as you can.
If you can, walk near trees or water.

There is sanctuary in being alone with nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife...
- Thomas Gray

If a person walks in the woods and listens carefully,
he can learn more than what is in books,
for they speak with the voice of God.
- George Washington Carver

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

What To Do When Your Whole World Is Falling Apart?

Renew Yourself