Happy Holidays, Everyone!
This time of year can be the worst when it comes to Peace During the Holidays! We are expected to run around and be social All of The Time. As an introvert, I find this time of year exhausting – and tend to look for inspiration in other areas. I thought I would celebrate by posting about Peace Pilgrim, hoping you find some Peace During the Holidays!
“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” –Peace Pilgrim
In 1953, at the age of 45, a woman gave up all of her belongings walked across America promoting peace and harmony. She relinquished everything– her birth certificate, her social security card, and even her name. And she took on a new one…
“Peace Pilgrim”
Now, you may have visions in your head of a wondering hippie that was lost on some drug trip for awhile. This is not the case. Peace Pilgrim was more like a Mother Teresa—she was a wondering saint.
Between the years of 1953 and 1981 walked over 25,000 miles, vowing to “remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food.”
I found out about Peace Pilgrim via Wayne Dyer’s audio recording “It’s Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile”. A fitting title for the recording, and the description of Peace Pilgrim’s life, and what she stood for.
Throughout her 28 years of being a nomad, she came to terms with most of life’s issues. One of the hardest was finding inner peace.
I was inspired by her story, her mission, and ability to find inner peace in the most hectic of circumstances. She moved through life helping others where she was needed, and spreading her mission everywhere she went. In her stories, she explains how most days she wouldn’t know if she would eat, where she was going, and where she would sleep that night. And yet, she was able to demonstrate pure trust, let go of any fear of being taken care of, and spread her message of love and peace throughout the world.
In my own life, I have found these steps to be fundamental in achieving inner peace even during the holiday season:
How to find Peace During the Holidays
- Live simply
- Trust in the process
- Help wherever you are needed
- Know your mission and share it with the world
- Understand that you are living in a kind Universe, and that you will be taken care of
- Spend quiet time everyday connecting to your source and finding beauty in the world
- Share your wants, needs, and desires–let them go–and watch them appear magically before your eyes!!
The more I follow these steps in my own life, the more peaceful and happy I feel. And then, I begin to experience what Peace Pilgrim discovered on her many miles of walking and serving. She called these lessons “Symptoms of Inner Peace”. You could know you were on the right track to achieving inner peace when these things started or stopped showing up in your life.
10 Symptoms of Inner Peace
- Have a tendency to Think and act Spontaneously
- Unmistakable ability to Enjoy Every Moment
- A loss of interest in Judging other People
- It’s no longer necessary for you to Interpret the Actions of Others
- Loss of interest in Conflict
- You realize Worry is a wasted emotion, so you Stop Worrying (if you can’t change something, why worry? If you can change it, why worry?)
- You begin to experience frequent and overwhelming episodes of appreciation (which leads to…)
- Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
- You’ll find yourself having frequent attacks of smiling
- An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others, as well as an uncontrollable urge to extend it
I love this list, and Peace Pilgrim’s dedication for externally spreading the concept of peace, and discovering these “symptoms” in our own lives!! Wishing you Inner Peace During the Holidays!
