We've just completed our second Big Peace retreat www.bigpeaceretreat.co.uk – which we held at a beautiful hotel near Lewes in Sussex and it was wonderful. I love meeting you all and diving more deeply into the practices that will bring us peace.

It strikes me again how dynamic this process is (I thought the Big Peace would be about floating round in white clothes, with angels and birds tweeting in the background) But no! It's funny, human, brave and messy.

The Big Peace is about accepting all parts of our humaness – the dark and the light. One of the great things about a retreat like this is that we hear that other people also have an 'inner pessimist' – just as mean and ugly as ours – who beats us about the head with their stories of gloom and doom. And I love the 'aha' moments when we realise we have choice. That the inner pessimist is not real – we're making it all up and that if you can make up that vicious soundtrack, you can choose to make up a new, supportive, nurturing script for your life.

And ah! Bisto, it's so much more peaceful – and fun!

Here's an exercise we did on the retreat. Try these questions and create your own mini-retreat.

1. What
   is it you want to change?

 

 

2. What
   is the thinking behind your current behaviour?

 

 

3. What
   are the costs of that thinking?

 

 

4. What
   would your life be like without that thinking and behaviour?

 

 

 

5. What
   would you have to think differently to create new behaviour?

 

 

6. What
   actions can you take if you acted as if this new thinking was true?

 

 

7. Are
   you willing to let go of your old thinking and willing to embrace your new
   thinking?

 

 

8. Paint
   me a picture of what your life will be like with your new
   behaviours/thinking in place?

 

 

9. What
   do you commit to DO DIFFERENTLY to make this thinking a default setting in
   your life?

 

 

 

10. Paint
    me a picture of what your life will be like on one year from hence with
    this new thinking in place?

Let me know how you get on with these.
xxx