The first rule of authenticity is honesty.  If you are dedicated to honoring your authentic self, there are some questions that are essential to ask yourself with regularity and to answer with honesty.

What’s your answer to this question (try not to overthink this—just go with the first thing that arises when you read this):

“What am I not doing right now that, if I started doing, would make the biggest difference in my life?”

To probe further, ask yourself: “Why haven’t I already moved in that direction? What am I afraid will happen if I make room for this in my life? Is that really a valid concern—or an excuse so I don’t have to face my fears?”

Then to pack some real punch, follow up with: “If that change is so important to my life, what one step can I take this week—even a small one—to banish doubt or useless excuses and move in that direction?”

If you’re committed to living your authentic life, you’ll take that step.

For your inspiration in taking the next step…

“He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.”
—W.E.B. Du Bois

We all talk about wanting more “peace” in our lives.  But what is peace?

In many ways, peace is a paradox. Peace is soft and it’s strong. It’s open to listening and it takes a stand. Sometimes we think that “peaceful” means having no challenges, upsets, or obstacles in our lives. But that’s a passive kind of life, and a peaceful person is never passive or a milquetoast—compliant, submissive, or spineless.

Think about these three paragons of peace—Saint Francis,  Mother Teresa (a Nobel Peace Prize winner), and Mahatma Gandhi (who was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize, though never awarded it). Can you imagine any of them being passive?

I had a chance to think about the quality of peace when I was asked by author, retreat leader, and meditation teacher Ruth Fishel to write a short piece on peace to be included in her beautiful book called Peace in Our Hearts, Peace in the World: Meditations of Hope and Healing. Here’s what I wrote:

Peace, like so many things in life, is not always what we think it is. Peace is not an absence of activity and it is not passivity, any more than it is walking away from our responsibilities to retreat to an island in the Pacific. Peace takes purposeful action but from a center point that is open and receptive, for it knows that there is always more to know.

When peace is at work within us, we trust deeply that what is at our door, or in our face, is exactly what we need right now. We ask plenty of questions and then leave enough space to listen for the answers. And we accept that what we hear may reveal a new place inside of us that we haven’t known before.

While peace can step back to listen and learn, it’s not afraid to step forward to speak. Peace can courageously take a stand for something or someone but in a way that doesn’t belittle anything or anyone. When we come from a place of peace, we don’t have to make someone else wrong in order to affirm what is right for us.

In short, peace is passionate, is present, and is therefore supremely powerful.

What’s your definition of peace? And how do you experience the paradox of peace?