Strategy of Peace

During uncertain times, we must develop our sense of trust in our innate ability to survive. When asked to share resources and helpful cues to assist people in our community with processing and to navigate this (insert your adjective here) time, it challenged me to identify what is accessible to people of all circumstances.

Peace of mind is a tool that breaks the barriers of socioeconomic status, racial and cultural markers. It is a compelling investment in filtering our perspective to decide how we will continue forward, despite what exists in the external world. We need not the privilege or access to exclusive resources or expensive opportunities to manifest this peace. As we decipher what our strategy of peace is, we learn to observe the chaos and confusion that is indeed occurring outside of us as if it were a bus coming and going; yet refrain from chasing or engaging with it. This power allows us to validate what we feel or see while starving the power of a potential reaction and its respective consequences from controlling us. 

It is healthy, acceptable, and even encouraged to grieve what we are adjusting to…this new standard of living. An unstable ground brings about the versatility in creativeness for people but leaves room for shaping behaviors that impact our future. Maybe some memories hold reminders of you surviving something difficult before, could this be your peace? Peace of mind is NOT avoiding what you feel or relying on toxic positivity to minimize your reality and its components. The is no currency value or exchange rate with peace or endurance. Our privileges or oppression cannot influence access to peace of mind.  It would be within us, even if we didn’t realize it until this pandemic. In all of our diversity and abilities, we have access to developing our peace of mind during this transition. 

So, I ask, what is your strategy of peace? Where do you allow yourself to draw the lines or boundaries around what is influencing you during these tumultuous times? How can you become creative in supporting your peace of mind that does not require external forces? If you (or your clients) have limited or no external access to resources, how do you measure personal inventory of strength, resilience, and ultimately peace of mind? If peace of mind brings up resistance, maybe it is only time to plant the seed of its possibility.

By Michelle Mattison, NASW-Michigan MSW Representative