Poetry Therapy – Finding Inner Peace
And I shall have some peace there
for peace comes droppings slow
From The Lake Isle of Innisfree
W. B Yeats
The above are some of the beautiful lines from the poem by W. B. Yeats – The Lake Isle of Innisfree. This is the invitation to the Isle of Freedom beyond opposites – the heart isle – the Deep Hearts Core island. I use poetry as a form of therapy. It is a practice of heart awareness where through this practice I build on my imagined island of freedom my heart house. This is an inner island. It is a sanctuary where I go and take solitude and solace from the pain and suffering of the world.
Therapy derives from the root of a Greek word meaning “healing,” which in turn is allied to the experience of wholeness. This is a wider idea than psycho analysis which is a form of therapy with its intention of healing. However, many therapies are a form of adjustment to what can be considered the collective norm of feeling separate within the world of time and space and form. Finding inner peace is the peace that comes dropping slow. It is a journey into the sanctuary of the Still Point Centre. It isn’t something that you acquire but it is more that you allow it to arise through the exercise of trust. The greatest practice of the peace that come dropping slow is any form of meditation. This is a daily practice of focusing the mind so that beyond the riotous thoughts that fill the average mind one finds beyond that real peace of mind.
Peace of mind can be had in an instant if you understand fully your relationship too the peace that passeth understanding and time. For most of us, including myself, this peace comes more slowly. It drops from the higher chakras into the heart centre and radiates through the chakras of the personality. The experience of peace of mind begins as all forms of spiritual practice begin or any other form of learning begins. If you went to learn a foreign language from someone who could not speak such language then your degree of faith in the teacher would be nil. You have to begin with trusting in the possibility that peace of mind is a living and lovely experience that you are able to reveal to yourself.
Peace of mind begins with small steps and it begins in the mind and is connected to the breath. The fineness of your breathing dictates how fine you will feel. At times, with practice, your breath will feel so fine that you enter the Still Point Centre within and you feel expanded beyond the normal limitation of your time space form. Meditation techniques teach you a paradoxical no thing. Whatever practice you engage with you are going to meet with the content of your mind. Most people will find this almost impossible. They are asked to focus within the meditation technique on some chosen object and within a minute or less their mind is simply distracted by distraction.
What then happens is that many people make the judgement that they are not good at the practice and give up. Finding that you are not good at the practice of focusing your mind is the point. The practice isn’t about achievement. It is simply about observation. In meditation terms this is called mindfulness. You are practicing the art of being present to what is and what is happens to be the detraction of you mind. Rather than control this distraction you simply observe it and in observing it the mind quietens.
There are scientifically proved benefits to meditation that cover the whole spectrum of improved physical, mental and emotional health. The important thing is not the results but the practice itself (although the results are not to be dismissed as unimportant). The practice, whichever practice you engage with, will unfold in its own way. The benefits might not come immediately. You will learn to simply not get overly attached to trying to determine how this practice of mediation unfolds.
Peace of mind comes dropping slow because we are so used to having the opposite. When you begin to practice any form of mediation the first thing you observe is how non-peaceful your mind actually is. You think you are in control of your thought processes. If you think this then simply sit still for ten minutes breathing in and out while observing the breath and without changing the way it moves. This will show you how much control of your thoughts you really have. This will begin to show you what peace of mind is not.
The idea is not one of control but one of attention. You don’t try and stop your thinking, which would be a kind of subtle violence. You simply notice. This is a feminine energetic. You are not trying to get somewhere or achieve anything. You are not even trying to achieve peace of mind because the peace of mind that comes dropping slow is negated by the one who thinks they are separate from this peace – namely you. The technique of mediation goes against much of what you have been taught will bring you success and prosperity in life. Meditation is an antidote to the stress of modern living and can, if your are committed enough, reveal to your the purpose, the passion and the true prosperity of your unique connection with this body living in the time and space dimension.
Meditation asks you to trust the process of allowing yourself to be guided from within. This is contrary to the modern focus where everyone tends to be some kind of expert and they know more than you know. This is a fact in many cases but it is only a fact in relation to what can be called cerebral knowledge. It is not factual within the context of what this writer and storyteller calls knowing. Another word for knowing is insight. You get to know from the insider. You don’t acquire this knowing through cerebral learning. You don’t acquire this knowing by steps. It is a revelation of the wisdom mind within you. This is the wisdom mind that you are always a part off but never apart from.
It is a personal experience of this writer that this knowing that you are a part of the Universal mind but never apart from that Universal mind that brings you true peace of mind. This knowing is not the wisdom of another. It is the still small vice within you that speaks to you in unique ways and that you choose to commit to knowing by paying attention. Peace of mind as a journey is called The Hero’s Journey. When you undertake this journey you benefit, not only yourself, but the collective called humanity. When you are so committed the Universe begins to become a more friendly place. The peace of your mind begins to be reflected back to you from the outer world. It is both and inner and outer journey but the primary work is on the alignment with the inner.
Peace of mind is a real boon. It is a true wish fulfilment. It gives life a firm centre. This is the real place of sanctuary where you can retreat too and drink from the well of being. You are truly free to live the unique life of meaning you are here to share with the world. Life isn’t just a period of existence between a timeline called life and death. It becomes the knowing of your birthless/deathless Self. This knowing of your eternal dimension is really the peace that passeth understanding. It gives you what the outer world can never give you because everything in this world of form is impermanent. It comes and it goes. Peace of mind is the knowing of that which is beyond form and which you are a part off but never ever apart from.
Peace of mind is not attained through having the big house, the expensive car or the perfect relationship. Ultimately it is the living and knowing the question “Who am I?” or “What am I here for and what does it all mean?” When you follow the Deep Hearts Core to the island of freedom to express the unique creative aspect of yourself in service to Love’s purpose you have the potential for true peace of mind. This isn’t something you get by wishing it would be so. That is simply a flight of fantasy. You have to do the work. This is the work of making yourself available to the process and trusting that you will be guided to that island, that place of sanctuary where peace comes dropping slow.
You have to make a focused daily commitment to healing. This doesn’t mean you are sick. The primary haling that is required is the healing of the idea that you are simply a body in form living in a dimension called time and space. Of course you are that but that is not the whole of who you are. Living a life between a start time called birth and an end time called death is what most people believe and live from. They might hope for something beyond but that doesn’t mean that they know. This idea of the limited self is the primary cause of suffering in this wold and will not bring you true peace of mind that lasts.
Finding peace of mind takes time, commitment, discipline and practice. It is not a short quick fix solution to the existential question of living life as a separate individual. Finding peace of mind does not end. It just expands. It expands until it envelopes all dimensions within time and beyond time and then begins the game all over again in the endless becoming of Love.
This endless becoming of Love is the great contribution that you can make to the world. You can follow the invitation from St. Francis of Assisi and learn to become an instrument of peace. Why not become one who goes to the inner place of sanctuary where peace comes dropping slow but where slow also means sure. This commitment begins with taking a step into trusting that you have this potential within you and that you, with willingness and with deep intention become a servant to the purpose of Love for the peace of all.
The other asp
ect of real peace of mind is that your begin to radiate it out into the world. Are you Ready to Radiate? You begin to create conditions for the experience of Heaven on Earth which is the intention of the birthing of Creation in each and every moment. This brings you in line with life’s purpose and this purpose gives you peace because it heals the idea of you as being apart from the whole and that which is holy.
I invite you to take up a regular meditation or mindfulness practice. Make this practice, not only one you commit to as a process for finding peace of mind for yourself, but for inviting the peace beyond opposites to become a living experience for all sentient being on this planet and beyond. If you doubt this is possible then simply witness the doubt. In this way you do not give the doubt energy. In simply witnessing it it fades and the peace that comes dropping slow begins to be a peace that becomes, not so much a state of mind, but a station of being.
So begin a new therapy. Poetry therapy. Follow the invitation from W. B. Yeats. Arise and go now. Arise with the willing intention of going forward in life and creating an inner sanctuary of peace for yourself. Out of this peace you will come to find your Deep Hearts Core desire and from this your mind will be at peace, your body will blaze and you will be blessed and feel that you can bless. This will be enough.
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