I watched a bit of good news a couple weeks back. You may have followed the progress of the Buddhist monks from Fort Worth, Texas, with their “Walk for Peace” spanning about 2,300 miles. Every day they held a ‘peace sharing talk’ at lunch, for anyone who wanted to listen. One of the talks really inspired me to adopt a new practice suggested by one of the monks. He suggested leaving your phone alone and not engaging with it until you make your bed, go to the bathroom, and write with pen on paper “today will be my peaceful day”.

Feeling very downhearted the morning I saw this clip, of the Venerable Monk Pannakara and his talk helped me reframe how I want to start my days.

Reflecting on his teachings, I realized peace is not a passive process. This is not an invitation to “check out” and numb ourselves. It is an invitation to feel and think and act from our hearts instead of in reaction to what our phones spark us to react to.

Try it. Peace may be a rare quality these days, but we all have the ability to create and spread peace.