Blaming vs. Peace

As I looked up the definition for peace the other day on the internet the definition really struck me as interesting and I have been thinking about it over and over again over the last few days. Every definition I saw defined peace as an absence of something (war, hostility, troubles, etc.). So fascinating! You hear about people wanting to acquire peace and we get caught in the trap of looking and looking for it, when what we need to be doing is looking inward to see all the junk we need to be ridding our minds of. I see it as a need for a cleansing of our lives, of our minds of the unnecessary garbage we have allowed to penetrate it - of the thinking errors and negative thoughts we keep feeding our selves....

The thinking error that has been so prevalent on my mind lately is blaming. Several events in my life recently have unveiled to show me the need for removing this thinking error - and ridding it of my thoughts completely. I believe blaming is the one thinking error that I have always struggled the most with. I have figured out that blaming others is the easiest thing to do, while taking responsibility is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing we can do in our lives. How many times have I shrugged off responsibility and just put the blame on others for causing things to turn out the way they have for me. We blame others for ruining our lives because of something that"they did to us" and then we just sit back and have a pity party and say we can't move on with our lives. What happens when we blame is we rob ourselves of life itself. Notice I didn't say that "we allow others to rob us of our life." That language still puts the blame on others.

Recently, I have made a conscious effort to to not blame anyone or anything for any thing that I do or that happens (no matter how small). Even the little things like tripping over a toy "my dog left lying around" can get my mind in the blaming mode. I could get mad at my dog for leaving the toy there and let my anger level rise or I could say "I should have been watching where I was going" or "I need to teach my dog to put his toys up." Taking responsibility only presents opportunities for improvement and growth.

Ridding our lives of blaming - just one more step towards removing the junk in our lives that keeps us from having peace and a positive attitude..... Each time I feel my anger level rise, I'm going to ask myself if I'm engaging in blaming.