How to Reach Peace of Mind

“No sooner is Virtue born than Envy comes into the world to attack it; and sooner will there be a body without a shadow than Virtue without Envy.” (Leonardo Da Vinci)

Da Vinci was a genius, perhaps the greatest that ever lived; as such, he had a very poor opinion of mankind, recognizing that most people prefer to lower other people to their level rather than rise themselves. We can readily see that more than 500 years later, things have not changed. It suffices to study the life of celebrities and other successful people to discover that they carry out a daily battle against envy.

He recognized our human vices and virtues; being a genius, he was able to look down upon us common mortals. What could he possibly envy in others? He was tall, handsome, a ladies man, a fantastic sculptor, painter and scientist. But for the rest of us, some feelings are extremely destructive; envy and jealousy go hand in hand, blotting out any possible personal happiness.

“Envy according to the aspect of its object is contrary to charity, whence the soul derives its spiritual life… Charity rejoices in our neighbor’s good, while envy grieves over it.” (Thomas Aquinas)

The famous theologian is giving us the opposite of envy, charity, which means feeling good that your neighbor is successful. The message is clear: We cannot cultivate a good spiritual life, that is reaching happiness and inner peace, if we spend our time whining about the achievements of others. Envy is a destructive feeling, as is jealousy. It makes our lives miserable, needlessly I may add. Use charity toward yourself, toward your own life and enjoy the day, the moment, the minute.

Just as you can make yourself a slave of money, you may fall into the pit of hell by constantly comparing your life to those in the news who seemingly lead a perfect life. You can change that by concentrating on the positive; progress should be measured one step at a time and so all of us must take that essential first step toward happiness and peace of mind. After all, life is so short! Why waste it in negative feelings when you could actually spread the good word around you?

Remember the saying “what goes around comes around”. If we seed envy, jealousy, negative comments about others and constantly complain about our own life, all this will eventually hit us back multiplied by a factor of ten. On the hand, if we remain positive and sincerely congratulate those who have succeeded, urging them to keep fighting and progressing, we will eventually collect the positive results also by a factor of ten.

Beauty is all around us, but only those who wish not to see will fail to appreciate it. A new baby, a puppy, words of love, a sunrise, a smile, a bouncing ball, a new flower, a child playing and laughing, a passing cloud, these are the important things in life. Let’s open our eyes and enjoy them while we are alive on this gorgeous planet!