Peace Starts in the Body
A gentle truth for turbulent times
You may be feeling it—like a vibration under the skin. The weight of the headlines. The sharp edges of division. The way conflict spills into everything: our newsfeeds, our conversations, our nervous systems.
When war erupts in the world, it doesn’t just stay “out there.”
It stirs something in the body.
A tightening in the jaw.
A flutter in the chest.
A weariness that seeps into the bones.
We may feel powerless.
We may want to fix it all, to shout, to flee, to freeze.
But what if peace doesn’t begin with fixing?
What if it begins with feeling?
A Radical Softness
Peace is not passive.
It’s not something reserved for spiritual retreats or quiet Sundays.
It is radical, alive, embodied.
Peace asks us to slow down when the world is speeding up.
To notice the breath when our minds race.
To soften—not as weakness, but as wise refusal to harden.
To hold space—for complexity, contradiction, and care.
In a World on Fire
We live in a time when the stakes are high.
Bombs fall.
Fires burn.
Children cry.
And the impulse is to act fast.
Action matters. But so does presence.
If we move from ungrounded reaction, we may unintentionally mirror the very unrest we seek to end.
If we cannot regulate our own nervous systems, how can we help regulate a world in distress?
This is not about ignoring injustice.
It’s about becoming clear vessels—so our actions arise from wholeness, not woundedness.
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in'“ The story of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”
🧘♀️ The Practice of Inner Ceasefire
Peace begins in the body.
It’s felt in the belly softening with each breath.
In the feet rooting into the Earth.
In the heart that resists the lure of outrage long enough to stay curious.
The body is not just a container for experience.
It is a sanctuary. A place where we remember:
We are not machines.
We are not enemies.
We are organisms—tender, sensing, sacred.
Small Circles of Peace
You don’t have to change the whole world today.
You can begin with your breath.
With a walk through the woods.
With a hand on your own heart.
With a difficult conversation held with gentleness.
Peace is contagious. It ripples—
From body to family,
From family to community,
From community to culture.
The larger peace we long for begins in the most intimate places.
A Soft Call to Action
Let this be your reminder:
You don’t have to armor up to be strong.
You don’t have to know all the answers to care deeply.
You don’t have to wait for the world to change before becoming a peaceful presence in it.
Take the next breath.
Feel your body.
Listen to what it needs.
Let that listening shape how you live, how you speak, how you act.
Peace starts in the body.
And from there, it grows.
