Difference between Happiness and Peace:
We have experience happiness in our life quite regularly. What about peace? Are we peaceful? Do we feel inner peace? Sadly, most of us shake our heads and say no. Both are positive emotions that we all need. We often think both Happiness and Peace are the same. In truth, it is not so.
Several things can make us feel happy. It can be as simple as good food, or success, money, love, victory, respect, appreciation and the list goes on. Please understand that happiness is an internal feeling that depends on external factors. It could be simple or complicated and depends from individual to individual. As per the research conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, happy people tend to live longer. So there is some relativity to happiness and a longer life span. However, being happy is not being in peace. As mentioned above, happiness can be achieved easily and with simple things. Yet happiness is fragile and temporary.
Another difference between happiness and peace is happiness is conditional and cannot remain forever. On the other hand, peace is unconditional and remains forever. Happiness is a state of being satisfied for the time being. On the contrary, peace is a sensation of fulfillment.
Peace is nothing but a feeling of bliss within our inner-self. In simpler words ‘feeling nothingness’ and being calm can be termed as peace. Peace is purely internal and inward. We have to understand ourselves first to attain peace. We should be aware that life is unpredictable and full of ups and downs. The trajectory of our life can easily be compared to the stock market. To live a better life, we should learn to react to bad days or things in the right way just as we do when good things happen. Peaceful people can do that quite easily. So Peace is a wonderful asset that we all must acquire.
Peace is very much attainable. But then, it needs effort. An Eternal peace needs eternal efforts too. What can we do to attain peace? Among many other possible solutions, three crucial practices help us to attain peace. These three practices are very much doable and learnable.
1.Practicing Mindfulness:
Mindfulness is a simple exercise that allows us to sense our mind and body. Mindfulness is a practice that helps to calm our minds. To add, it can control our emotions. This in turn helps us to handle different stressful situations. Mindfulness helps in improving relationships with others. As per the research, people who practice mindfulness can handle conflicts and arguments even when they are in uncomfortable situations.
2.Living in the Moment:
The next factor that helps us to acquire peace is to live in the moment. Time and again, we tend to recall our past and blame ourselves for not doing the right things. This kind of act can depress us and make us feel sad. So, it is wise to avoid recalling the past that cannot be undone.
The same way most of us unnecessarily worry about the future that is yet to come. This can create unwanted stress and tension in us.
Instead of doing these two things, we should live the present life and do what is needed. At the same time, we should be happy with what we have and accept life as it is.
3.Meditation:
Meditation is another way to find our inner peace. Meditation relaxes both our mind and body. To add, it helps us to stay calm as well. We could do yoga or go for a long walk. Meditation is the simplest way to seek our inner peace.
Apart from these three practices, other factors can help us to attain peace. Our life experiences, maturity, and wiseness can help us to see life differently. Please note that life is the biggest teacher that everyone can afford. From birth to death, life offers us many lessons. We should be wise enough to recognize this and learn the life lessons duly.
Life is nothing but an opportunity. We all are here to live life. While doing so we experience different emotions – positive and negative. We must try to learn something from both. As we grow, a purpose is instilled in our minds. It could be anything depending on our ambition or desires. Again, it depends from individual to individual. One may want to become a doctor, an artist, a scientist, an engineer, a writer, an entrepreneur or it could even be as simple as earning money to live happily with their respective family. In simpler terms, life cannot be much more than this. You are born, you live and you die. One doesn’t have control over their birth and death, yet they can have full control over how they live.
As we go on living we all make many errors, mistakes, judgments and act in a wrong way that causes us pain and sorrow. Note that our life is full of trial and errors method. Here is where we have to analyze why things did go wrong and why we failed to achieve our goals. A sharp eye, (not a physical eye but an inner eye, or intuition) can help us to find it out. Using this we have to learn to overcome our previous errors and correct them while we can. Our life is smart enough to provide many such opportunities so that we can learn one thing or other things during our failed attempts or actions. After learning these life lessons we have to act correctly to avoid the same mistakes or errors. This is what makes us wise and intelligent. At the same time, this is how we understand life better.
Once we understand life better, we realize many factors that earlier we haven’t given much thought to. The way we see the world changes depending on our perspective. We become more tolerant and learn to accept life the way it is. The more tolerant we are; the better for ourselves. Tolerance, that is, when we use it as a moral virtue, helps us to live peacefully and harmoniously. Tolerance means being agreeable and showing patience. Tolerance helps people to avoid unnecessary conflicts. But mind you, one should not be over tolerant; else others may consider it as our weakness. If we feel wrong with something, that is, behaviors, actions, or opinions of others, we have to stand up to correct it. In simple terms, we should not tolerate negative or wrong acts of others. At the same time, we should never use force – physical or otherwise while we correct the mistakes of others. It is better to be polite even when correcting others. Tolerance helps us to understand life better. As we become more tolerant, we learn many aspects of life and this, in turn, helps us to attain peace.
Emotions are a part and parcel of human life. There is nothing wrong with feeling different emotions, whether positive or negative. We must understand that emotions play a vital role in all our actions. Hence first thing is to identify what kind of emotion we are feeling and analyze why we are feeling so. Once we understand the reason, it would be much easier to overcome or face it. Young people do have more emotional issues as their hormones play a significant role in it. Hence, it is the responsibility of elders to guide them to control their emotions. As we grow older and understand life better, we learn to control our emotions in our way. Of course, there are many ways to control emotions. Meditations, Yoga, walking, exercising, diverting our mind on something else are some of the easier ways that we can practice for our betterment. As we go on implementing eternal efforts, eventually we attain eternal peace.
There is a misconception or myth is that often people believe. They think a beautiful landscape, nature, or a calm place can provide them peace. Sadly, it is not so. They may relax their mind at the above-mentioned places and feel happy, but they cannot find peace. Peace is completely internal and we have to find it in ourselves rather than places.