Peace-of-Mind: How to Shift into it When You Need a Reset

Have you ever driven a standard transmission on a vehicle?

My dad taught me how to drive when I was 16 years old. He bought me a 1982 Toyota Tercel which was basically a tin can on wheels. And it was standard.

He said that I had a lead foot and he bought me that old beater car because it wouldn’t go over 80 km/hr.

(By the way I still have a lead foot and I use snowboarding and mountain biking now to go fast!)

If you have learned to drive standard, you know how frustrating it can be.

You are managing two pedals and the stick shift, yet you are much more in control of how the car drives.

After I got the knack of driving standard in all situations, including starting in first gear going up a hill, I started to really like it.

And I miss driving standard now. Automatic transmissions feel too easy.

Imagine you had been driving a standard car comfortably for years.

Going from neutral to first gear, then second, then third, and fourth, were incredibly natural to you and you didn’t even need to think about it anymore.

Then one day you realized there was another gear.

A gear you somehow had never noticed before.

This is what finding peace-of-mind is like.

It’s like finding a new gear in the same life and same circumstances you have been living in all along.

When I started living from my peace-of-mind, I felt different.

I felt calmer and more relaxed.

My mind was more quiet.

Even though my life hadn’t changed.

I still had a young daughter who was always asking for my attention and often impacting my ability to have a good night’s rest. (Last night she woke me up at 2am to tell me she was having a good sleep).

I was still growing my business and learning so many things about filing corporate taxes, bookkeeping, technology, and many other activities that were completely new to me.

I still wanted to write 10 best selling books to help the world feel more peaceful which often makes me feel pressure, as if my work is never done.

I still had a busy mind that often had stressful, anxious, or worrisome thoughts.

Even though my life circumstances were not perfect, finding this new gear from my own internal peace-of-mind, I knew where to find contentment and peace amidst it all.

And now on the days I get caught up feeling worried, annoyed, tired, overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, or anything else, I will visualize myself grabbing that imaginary stick shift and putting myself back into that peace-of-mind gear, remembering that I do not need to live in stress, tension, overwhelm, or upset.

I can choose to live in peace.

I can choose to feel calm.

And from peace and calm, my mind quiets down.

Then, suddenly, whatever issue had me feeling stress seems manageable and there is a clear path of what action step to take.

It’s not about living a perfect life.

And it’s not about waiting for life to calm down and be less stressful so that you can finally be your best self.

It’s about choosing who you want to be and how you want to experience life as you ride through the ebb and flow.

Your peace-of-mind gear comes through on a nice feeling that is often described as calm, light, content, peaceful, and free.

When was the last time that you felt calm, light, content, peaceful, and free?

See if you can remember what activity you were doing.

Sometimes it happens during meditation, exercise, being in the flow at work, being creative, on vacation, or completely out of the blue.

As you think back to the activity you were doing, see if you can elicit that same peaceful feeling now, as you visualize yourself there.

Once you’re there, take a few deep breaths. Practice getting familiar with that feeling, knowing that you can ‘shift’ yourself there whenever you need a reset.

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You’ve got this,

Tracey