The deep journey to Peace

By Daniel Francis

In my last article, I spoke about my journey of forgiveness that God has set me on during this Lenten season. It has only been two weeks since I started on this journey, and I have learned many profound things about myself. I will save that discussion for a future article because I want to continue experiencing this forgiveness journey before I share the results with you all.

In the meantime, I want to share what I have noticed about what the core of forgiveness addresses or leads to.

Have you ever been triggered by something someone has said or done? I think we have all been there. The truth about this reaction of being triggered is typically that the person is triggering a part of us that we have yet to work on or heal from.

Anything that someone says that truly bothers you or gets a reaction from you is happening for a reason. In those situations where you feel: ‘I am right and they are wrong’ so strongly that they bother you and incite a reaction, is the place that you should pay close attention to.

I dreaded taking this journey of forgiveness because it meant revisiting these types of situations and evaluating them to an uncomfortable degree. You have to ask the questions that you wouldn’t normally ask or answer: “Was I in the wrong?”; “How did I hurt this person in all this?”; “How much accountability do I hold in the fallout of what occurred?”; “Was this person’s actions justified based on what I did or the situation?”; “Where do I need to grow to properly move past this?”.

We sometimes villainise people that we don’t see eye to eye with and in doing so, we cut off most angles of empathy. It becomes: ‘I am right, and you are wrong.’

In my exploration of speaking to those who incite a reaction out of me or ill feelings, I learned that as much as I see them as wrong for what they did, I was also culpable in what occurred. It was not all on them and coming to terms with this fact can be difficult especially when you were badly hurt.

As I came to terms with these realisations throughout my journey of forgiveness and continue to do so, I have realised how much control I was allowing a negative element to have over me. “How can I let a thought or a person incite such negativity?” I questioned.

The medicine of asking yourself difficult questions, taking accountability for your past actions, and accepting or giving forgiveness dissipates a miasma inside of you.

Medicine is an apt description of the process because it is a difficult pill to swallow, but it provides healing. I am not on the other side of this process as yet, but I have noticed that the root of this journey of forgiveness is peace.

The peace of letting go. The peace of taking back control from external elements. The peace that brings you closer to God in your actions and thoughts. A peace that the more you address these situations, the less triggered by the words or actions of others you are. That peace which I have been getting a small taste of is freeing.

Imagine attaining a level of peace where nothing that anyone says or does bothers you. It is available to all of us, but it starts by addressing the things that incite negative reactions or trigger us.

Ask those tough questions. Ask God for guidance throughout the process. The next time you are triggered by something someone says or does, think about what part of you has not healed or that you have not worked on enough. Ask yourself the tough questions and begin the process of healing to start on the deep journey to peace.

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

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