I felt the need to write a little about PEACE this week, it’s certainly been an ongoing theme in my life recently and I’m sure it has seeped into quite of few of your lives as well with all that’s been going on in the news. As many of you probably know, on August 8th (Friday), there was a global meditation for peace lead by Deepak Chopra as well as many others around the world. I spent that afternoon, when it was going on, in yoga class doing a meditation for peace. We all envisioned what our version of a peaceful world would be and then planted that seed and sent that love and light out to the world.

My vision of peace was very simple, I saw a street in SoHo (where my yoga studio is in NYC) and just lots of people walking past each other, smiling, saying hi and just showing love and light for one another. For me, peace is really us all being able to see each other as love and realizing that the other people we meet are just reflections of ourselves. We’re all human and we’re all going through this human experience, why not send each other love and light and be pleasant (even friendly!) with one another!?

On Sunday, I got invited to a “Unite for Peace in the Middle East” event with two very special influences in my spiritual life, Marianne Williamson and Jennifer Kass. Both ladies brought up a very important point in their talks, PEACE begins with US. That is, peace needs to start with our personal experience. We need to find peace within us, within our relationships and within our lives. How can we preach about peace in the middle east when we can’t keep peace in our romantic relationships or even sometimes within our own head? Peace starts with you.

Below is a meditation that I love using on the go for those situations in life where I need to remind myself that peace begins with me. I find it very helpful when you’re out there interacting with the world and silly things come up that push you out of your peace. For me, meditation is that tool that helps me come back to my inner peace and therefore helps me spread peace in my daily interactions. Peace (and happiness) is a CHOICE we can make. Sometimes it can certainly be harder to make that choice then others but that is when it is so important to ask for help and guidance. Whether you’re asking for help from the universe or some higher power by simply saying a prayer for guidance ( for example, “please help me see this differently // please help me see this with love // please help me find peace in the situation. ” ) and that’s really as simple as it can be, or reaching out to someone like me, for an emergen-zen session so that you can get the tools to help you get back to that place of peace inside of you. The only requirement is your willingness, when you are ready to find that peace and serenity, you will be guided to it. Sending you guys love and light, I hope you try out this mini-meditation for peace and please let me know how it goes for you. I’ll answer and comments or questions below if you need some more insight or want to share your tips on coming back into your inner peace.