One of my main goals in life is to live in peace and harmony with everyone and everything, no matter what’s going on around me. Seeking this type of serenity is something I’ve been striving for since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, I failed to realize for the longest time that my own actions kept working against me achieving that very thing.
Here are the top ten reasons in no specific order, which I learned from personal experience that always worked against me finding that long-lasting peace, harmony, and serenity I so desperately wanted to have in life…
- Chain-smoking. That only made me more aggravated.
- Drinking energy drinks or consuming copious amount of caffeinated beverages. That only made me more irritable and impatient.
- Yelling at people for not acting the way I wanted. That only made me angrier and more resentful.
- Avoiding spending time alone. That only made me more afraid of being alone.
- Overstuffing myself with food, especially sweets. That only made me bloated and more uncomfortable in my own skin.
- Promiscuity and pornography. That only led me to constantly lust and be incapable of experiencing any true intimacy.
- Boozing and drugging. That only placed me in a perpetual roller coaster of stressed-out emotions.
- Gossiping and/or backstabbing others. That only gave me more of a negative outlook on everyone, including myself.
- Skipping daily prayer and meditation. That only made me become more of a controlling person.
- Not practicing daily gratitude. That only made me believe some person, place, or thing would make my life better.
I’m sure there are plenty of other actions I used to do as well that consistently prevented me from experiencing that long-lasting peace, harmony, and serenity. But these are the ones that took their greatest toll on my life and always left me feeling the exact opposite of them, which was restless, irritable, and discontent. Thankfully, I’m not doing any of those things in life anymore and because of it, I can most definitely say I’m finally beginning to experience that which I’ve strived for throughout most of my life…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson