Every year on 21 September, people around the world mark the International Day of Peace, a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace and imagining a world in which conflict gives way to greater understanding, compassion and connection.

It is a beautiful and necessary vision, particularly at a time when there is so much conflict and division in our world. Yet when we think about peace, our attention naturally turns outwards. We think about war, fractured communities, political divisions and the many places where peace can feel painfully absent. We may wonder what we, as individuals, could possibly do in the face of something so enormous.

Perhaps there is another place we can begin. What if some of the peace we long to see in the world begins much closer to home, with the way we meet ourselves?

What does inner peace really mean?

Inner peace does not mean that everything in our lives is calm or that difficult things stop happening. It does not ask us to suppress our feelings, ignore suffering or pretend that everything is fine when it isn't. Rather, peace can be found in the way we meet what is already here.

We can spend enormous amounts of energy arguing with reality, wishing something had not happened, resisting what we are feeling or criticising ourselves for not coping differently. Our own minds can become places of conflict, filled with judgement, comparison, worry and self-criticism. We fight against what has happened, against what we feel and, sometimes, against ourselves.

Self-compassion offers us another way. Instead of fighting ourselves, we can begin to meet our experience with kindness. We can create a little more space around our thoughts, soften some of our resistance and hold the bruised and tender places within us with care. We are not necessarily changing what has happened or making the difficulty disappear, but we are changing the way we accompany ourselves through it.

Perhaps this is where peace begins.

When we cultivate peace within, it travels outwards

When we become less at war with ourselves, something can begin to change in the way we meet other people too. We may find that we have a little more capacity to listen rather than immediately react, to become curious rather than defensive and to make room for another person's experience, even when it is very different from our own.

Peace does not require us to agree with everyone, nor does it require sameness. We can hold different views, experiences and perspectives without allowing those differences to strip away our shared humanity. There can be space for disagreement and boundaries while still choosing to meet one another with dignity, kindness and compassion.

The peace we cultivate through mindfulness, loving-kindness and self-compassion can therefore reach far beyond the moments we spend in meditation. It can influence the way we speak, listen, parent, teach, lead, work and love. A small shift in the way we relate to ourselves can change the quality of the moment we create with somebody else, and that moment can travel onwards in ways we may never know.

A loving-kindness meditation for peace

To mark the International Day of Peace, I shared a gentle guided loving-kindness meditation for inner peace. The practice begins by turning towards ourselves and creating a little space for stillness. With the simple phrase, “May I be peaceful,” we offer ourselves the same wish for peace that we so readily wish for the wider world.

From there, the practice gradually widens. We bring to mind those around us and offer the wish, “May you be peaceful.” Finally, we allow the circle to expand beyond the people we know, holding our shared human family in our awareness with the wish, “May we all be peaceful.”

I love the simplicity of this movement from ourselves, to one another, and then out into the world. It reminds us that caring for our own inner world is not separate from caring about the world around us. When we cultivate greater peace within ourselves, we may be better able to bring patience, compassion and kindness into the relationships and communities of which we are a part.

Take a few moments for peace

If life has felt noisy, hurried or heavy recently, I warmly invite you to join me for this practice. You do not need to make yourself peaceful, empty your mind or get meditation “right”. Simply come as you are and give yourself permission to pause, breathe and be present for a little while.

You can watch and practise the Peace Begins Within guided loving-kindness meditation on YouTube here:

World peace can feel impossibly large when we look at everything happening around us, but the peace we bring to our own hearts, our families, our conversations and our communities is not insignificant. Each time we respond with kindness rather than judgement, listen rather than immediately defend, or choose connection rather than division, we contribute something to the world around us.

May the peace we cultivate within become the peace we offer to our world.