Peace is Earned
(3 Min Read)
The hardest challenge for an A-type person?
To cancel a meeting for the sake of a meditation.
Read that again. Notice how your body responds. Did it feel impossible? Did your mind resist? That reaction might reveal a deeper story worth investigating.
As a high-level achiever, you’ve probably prepared for many important moments. You stayed up late to ace presentations. You trained to perform in sport or school. Practice makes sense when culture rewards the outcome.
But what about peace?
When are we taught to prepare for that?
Many people hold the delusion that peace, defined as “a state where nothing is perceived as missing, there's nowhere to be, and nothing to do,” is something that happens after we’ve earned the right conditions. “Once I retire, or win, or get away, then I’ll finally feel peace.”
But when we get there, we often realize we don't know how to relax into peace. So we outsource the feeling to alcohol, cannabis, gambling, sex, or screens. These choices may soothe us in the short term, but they gradually reduce the body’s ability to surrender into real peace.
Peace is not passive. It is something we earn through steady commitment to practices like meditation that:
1. Support emotional healing
2. Build resilience to external stress
3. Offer glimpses of awakening
Awakening is a concept I’ll revisit in future essays, but here’s a basic definition:
Awakening, or mystical experience, refers to expanded states of consciousness that sometimes occur through practices like meditation, yoga, breathwork, or psychedelics. These states feel extraordinary, but also deeply true—as if, even briefly, you can see clearly and feel what really matters.
If we want to earn peace, we need those moments of clarity to help us orient. They are not the goal, but they help recalibrate our path.
What matters most is not the length or prestige of your practice. It is your consistency.
Ancient traditions always emphasize that five minutes a day (ideally twice a day) has more impact than a single long session once a week.
So here is your challenge this week:
Cancel a meeting for the sake of a meditation.
Don’t overthink it. The benefits come with time. Let go of expectations. Show up for peace now.
It may be the most important thing you do this week.
“Meditation is the art of returning to yourself. In a world full of noise, it offers silence. It is not about doing, but about being. We need it to calm the mind, to see clearly, and to remember who we truly are beneath all thoughts and roles. It is a path to inner peace, like still water reflecting the sky.”
🎧 Here’s a 30-minute introductory meditation I led live last Wednesday:
https://lnkd.in/g6W9QN_T
🌿 Practice live with me
Midweek Meditation | Wednesdays | 12 to 12:30pm CST
👉 https://lu.ma/awkn
