My book, Journal Through Your Grief may be a helpful tool for some who are seeking to process the finality of the tragedy; and Help for the Holidays may provide a way to find comfort at this time.
Everyone has their theory about how to stem the rising tide of mass murders in our country. Some blame gun laws, others focus on mental health policies, school security, or dysfunctional families.
We must improve our systems on all these fronts to decrease the frequency of these crimes. But there’s something else that’s essential to our healing, without which all the other measures will eventually fail.
That something else is our own individual inner peace.
The vast majority of us are not deranged, not even depressed. But we all experience decreasing peace and happiness. Adult life in the 21st century is riddled with anxiety. The threats of changing climate, terrorism, overpopulation, and shrinking resources leave none of us immune.
Adam Lanza, I think we can safely say, had no inner peace. He had no place where he could be safe, loved, understood, and cherished for exactly who he was.
Such a place is not Facebook, or the Cheers bar (“where everybody knows your name”), or even a church. It is also not with your family, though your home environment may come very close to providing serenity. But inner peace is inner: it’s something inside you, an aspect of your Self. You take it with you everywhere.
At times when our lack of inner peace becomes critical, we too often do and say hurtful things; we make mistakes, get mad, and generally let stress get the better of us. Lanza, and the many others like him, show us a horrific extreme of something that exists in all people. His crime points to the shifty ground on which we all stand.
We all need to nurture inner peace. Our country should take this as a top priority now. We need to find the place inside our own hearts and bodies where we are safe and cared for no matter what happens.
Your journal will help you find this place. Write on a new page, “Where inside me is the place I am always safe and peaceful?” Let your pen bring you responses. Make a plan for nurturing that place, and going there more often.
We should include journaling as an important part of school curricula. Along with all the other fixes, journal writing can go a long way towards countering violence in our society. Because every one of us deserves more peace and security in life.
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A great way to get started finding your inner peace is through our 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness Self-Discovery Journaling Challenge. Sign up now for the next Challenge, January 1-27, 2013!
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/townendphotography/2365231026/