It is a constant challenge to find our centre, our core, and stay there enough to uncover our capacities. Both require a steady movement inward. Yet all the while we are asked to face all that is disheartening along the way. For, if unfaced, disheartenment can fester. Through the infected veil of disheartenment, we can step right over all that might sustain us. This is not to say that we must always be cheery. It is unprocessed feeling that feeds disheartenment. Feelings faced, in time, discharge disheartenment. So standing by one’s core is not combative, but more about seeking peace by facing our experience, letting our feelings in, embracing our difficulties, and surrendering our useless notions of will – all without losing our self.

We often think peace is that place we arrive at once we’ve dealt with our feelings or even rid ourselves of them. More often, facing our feelings, which is sometimes different to dealing with them, reduces them to a common element that we know as peace. Peace is the steady centre that holds our feelings. When we sit at this centre, we are free to feel all our feelings, singly and together, without any single one taking over.” – Excerpt taken from Finding Inner Courage By Mark Nepo