There are a lot of books and articles being published these days about to what we need to do to get a peaceful state of mind.
Techniques to find a peaceful state of mind include mindfulness, meditation and walking in the woods.
In my opinion, one pre-requisite for a peaceful state of mind is to accept the world as it is now.
This means no resentment for anybody or anything that is going on in the world at the moment, or that has happened in the past.
I find the hardest time to find anything close to a peaceful state of mind is when I am feeling negative about myself or what is happening around me.
It is very easy when I am feeling like this for my mind to go down negative paths. What I have found works for me is to make a list of the positive aspects of my life and a second list some positive thoughts.
When I come to list the positive aspects of my life, I find there are many.
Creating this list does require me to look at life from a much more positive perspective because only positive aspects are permitted, anything even vaguely negative is not allowed. I read this regularly and it makes me realise that I have much to be thankful for.
This list is really a list of things to be grateful for and make me realise how much I have to be grateful for.
Recently, things have happened, mainly problems with my health, that caused me to look at life quite negatively.
I find that frequent re-reading of my gratitude list of positive aspects of my life means that slowly I begin to understand how much there is in my life that is positive.
Geoff Peck from Woosehill Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
