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Touching Peace: Mindful Breathing that Transforms Feelings and Society
When we practice mindful breathing, we begin to see how everything—people, trees, air, water—all asks for our attention. Attention is the foundation of true contact, calm, joy, and happiness: without it, sunsets, meals or our children’s smiles cannot touch us.
Touching peace means touching with mindfulness. Whether we place our hand on our eyes, our heart or our liver, each in-and-out breath awakens appreciation for what is functioning so we can care for it and allow peace and joy to arise. The same gentle, non-violent touch applies to our feelings—pleasant, neutral and unpleasant—so that:
- Pleasant feelings deepen and become more joyful.
- “Neutral” feelings turn into wells of well-being.
- Unpleasant feelings (anger, fear, despair) are calmed, understood and transformed by embracing them with mindfulness of anger.
Bringing this practice into relationship and society means arranging our lives to avoid watering the seeds of hatred or violence (the “toxins” of violent media, angry conversation, racism) and instead cultivating seeds of understanding, compassion and non-duality. In community—our Sangha—we learn to hold each other as a mother holds her baby, to listen deeply, to sign Peace Treaties and Peace Notes, and to act from love rather than anger, so that personal and collective suffering can be truly transformed.