Today’s blog is another lesson from my travels to Morocco. This is the second of three about peace.

When I think of peace, sometimes I think of Switzerland in the winter because that represents the magic combo for me – quiet and neutral. You know how quiet it can be in the snow – that kind of quiet. The desert is also like that.

When I was traveling in Morocco, I was reminded of how important neutrality is for peace. By the way, I’m talking about personal peace here – peace of mind – not politics.

I decided that I was going to have a very open mind. I said that there would be more on this later. Well, later is now. (ooh – time warp!)

Having an open mind means that you don’t go in carrying ALL of your baggage – your pre-conceived notions, opinions and judgment – maybe just your carry on (because you’re human).

Having an open mind means deciding ahead of time that the situation is neutral (it is what it is) and it calls for neutrality on your part.

You get to be curious. You can observe, just look at the facts.

You don’t need to judge. You don’t have to make it mean anything. It doesn’t need to be good or bad, right or wrong, safe or dangerous.

It certainly doesn’t have to mean anything about you. That’s sneaky good. So many times we create a lot of noise in our heads trying to figure out what something means about us, when it really doesn’t have anything to do with us. Say some one comes home in a bad mood, eats sugar, is a vegan, or even snaps at us. It is so freeing to be able to say to ourselves, “wow, this really isn’t about me at all.”

That’s the key to the quiet in the snow, the Jedi mind trick. Nothing to worry about here, nothing to judge. Move along. Sssh.

Now, I’m not saying that nothing is important. Not at all. I am saying that you get to choose what you think is important, when you want to make it mean something, when it can be about you, when you want to judge something and decide if it is awesome or horrible.

And the rest of the time, you can just decide to have an open and peaceful mind.

And remember: in all things – progress, not perfection!

Love and light,

*****

December is often a time for setting goals for the new year. If you’re interested in tackling a big goal for yourself, and you want to try a different approach, email me (maggie@talktomaggie.com) or schedule a free mini session with me (here). A mini session is a short coaching session, where we can talk about the noise that’s holding you back and what you can do about it. We can set you up to succeed without struggling!