Peace, love, and happiness have a reputation for being touchy-feely hippy values, but aren’t they just basic human values?  Shouldn’t we all aspire to find love in our heart for ourselves and each other?  Doesn’t every human want peace?  And when you come down to what we really want from our lives, isn’t it happiness?

At its core, peace is a state of non-violence.  When that core is cultivated, peace is a state of harmony.  That peaceful harmony is the product of love.  Love has many definitions, but at its simplest it is acceptance.  It is whatever brings you closer to peace, both within yourself and around you.

Loving yourself translates to respecting yourself.  It means that you’re not willing to lie, cheat, steal, hurt others, or misrepresent yourself in any way.  When you can be true to yourself and accept yourself the way you are, you get to a state of inner peace.

Inner peace doesn’t mean that you are complacent and don’t push yourself to be better at the things you want to do.  Rather it creates the conditions from which your heart can best operate.  It removes the friction between you and what you want to do and when you follow your heart you’re more likely to be happy.

Doing what you love can be challenging.  Often it requires you to let go of fear.  Transcending your self-imposed limitations can be very uncomfortable.  It is through being willing to experience that discomfort – through being devoted to your heart – that you can rise to meet your full potential.

Being human isn’t easy.  You can embrace your humanity by making the effort to be true to yourself and recognizing how hard it can be for others to do the same.  We are all human.  We all struggle to find our way to be happy in this world.

Acknowledging this is the seed of external peace.  When that seed is planted you see the benefit in serving those around you.  You come to inner peace by loving and accepting yourself.  You find happiness by being true to yourself and following your heart.  Finally, you create peace around you by serving others and helping them do the same.

Serving others doesn’t necessarily mean doing charity work and volunteering.  It means serving the moment.  Every time you engage with another human being, ask yourself – how can I serve this person?  So often we think – what can I get out of this situation?  Inevitably we create a path to stress and frustration.  When you ask, what can I give to this situation, you create a path to mutual gain and peace.

Undoubtedly, modern life can feel more like survival of the fittest than peace, love, and happiness.  Ultimately though, you create the world you want to live in.  You decide what is important to you and the attitude you bring to every moment.  It isn’t about big decisions or completely changing your life, it’s about putting thought into all the little things that you do every day.  You have the power to be the change you want to see in the world.  It all starts with you.

Love is acceptance.  It is whatever brings you closer to peace, both inside and outside of you.  Love is following your heart because that will bring you to inner peace.  Love is serving others because that is what will bring you to outer peace.

World peace starts with you.  It’s a decision to be completely true to yourself.  Only through that truth can you have a positive impact on the planet.  If you are not true to yourself, if you are lying or holding yourself back, how can you expect to make the world a better place?

When you take away the borders, the politics, and the skin color, we’re all human.  Every human feels emotion.  Every human feels sadness and joy.  Every human wants to be loved and has the capacity to love.  It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that every single person you pass by today feels things and struggles just as much as you do.

As individuals we build forts around ourselves.  We need more security, more money, more stuff.  The more we acquire, the more we are afraid to lose.  We become preemptively defensive and emotionally withdrawn from the world.  As nations we reinforce that fear.  We hoard resources, build military, and create immigration laws to protect against other nations, against other people.

We spend so much energy protecting ourselves against others that we lose sight of one very simple fact – we are all one human family sharing this planet.  What would the planet look like if we took all the energy we spend protecting ourselves and spent it helping each other?

Imagine a world with no borders.  No military and no wars.  No poverty because the trillions of dollars that governments spend globally on defense are invested in humanity.  Is it so hard to imagine?  It has nothing to do with religion, capitalism or socialism.  It’s about being human and accepting that everyone else is too.

You have the power to create a world based on love.   You shape the world with every choice you make – the way you treat people, the way you earn money, the words you speak, the products you use, and the companies you support.  Every day is an opportunity to cultivate love towards yourself and others.

When you serve others, you serve yourself.  You create the groundwork for a magical world where every person is his brother’s and sister’s keeper.  When you serve others, they serve you.  You can focus on watching out for yourself or you can imagine a world where seven billion people are watching out for you.

It all starts with you.

What does it mean to be selfish and completely selfless at the same time.  It is to know yourself in order to be able to give your self.   It is to know your heart, to master the gifts which have been given to you in this life so that you may give them to the world.

Your heart is the unique expression of who you are.  Nobody else on the planet loves the same things or does things quite like you do.  The things you love, the things that truly call your heart, are your gift to humanity.

In order to cultivate that gift, you need to be selfish.  Selfish in that you must be true to yourself first.  Your life has a purpose and it is to follow your heart.  That starts with cultivating love for yourself.  When you truly love yourself you can’t help but be true to yourself.

When you are true to yourself, you are true to others.  You aren’t misrepresenting yourself, you’re being exactly who you are.  It’s the greatest sign of respect for both you and the people in your life.  The people around you can see you exactly for who you are and they can love you for all the right reasons.

Being selfish simply means being true to your heart and doing what it takes to learn more about yourself and take care of yourself.  When you understand yourself, you understand what you have to give and you can be truly selfless.  When you take care of yourself and cultivate your energy, you can give more of yourself.  You can give yourself completely to the service of others as an expression of what you love.

Being selfless doesn’t mean that you give everything away to charity and don’t do anything for yourself.  It means that you strive to serve the world by sharing your energy with those around you.  Imagine you’re a fashion designer and that is what you absolutely love.  Your greatest service to those around you is to create the most amazing clothes by doing what you love.  When you do that, when you just create because you love to do so, rather than expecting a specific outcome or being afraid of failure, you are being truly selfless.

To be selfish and selfless means to do everything you can to build yourself up so that you can give the most back.  In order to give yourself completely, you have to know who you are and be true to that.  Otherwise, how can you know how much you have to give?

What does it mean to follow your heart?  Sometimes the universe seems to conspire to set the deck against you.  You see what you want to do, you feel it inside you, yet moving forward can feel all but impossible.

Why is it that something that should be so natural can be so hard?  We get caught up in the possibility of failure or success.  The fear can be overwhelming – what if people don’t like what you’re doing, what if you get laughed at or judged, what if you fail, what if you make a mistake, what if you’re not good enough, and, worst of all, what if you succeed?

It’s easy to lose sight of the most important consideration of all – what if you don’t follow your heart?  Do you want to spend your life selling yourself short and doing things you don’t love.  When you step back from your busy everyday life, ask yourself, is there anything more important than doing what you love?  If, for whatever reason, that isn’t an option right now, is there anything more important than working towards that eventual goal – where you can do what you love every day?

The universe doesn’t conspire to set the deck against you.  Every hardship is just there to show you a new path to your heart.  When you find it within yourself to overcome the challenges that confront you, you grow as a human being.  Your capacity to love grows and similarly, your capacity to do what you love grows.  You become a stronger person.

Every obstacle you have ever overcome has brought you to where you are today and made you who you are.  Every challenge you face today will make you who you are tomorrow.  You can get frustrated or find gratitude for the experience.  Nothing is more satisfying than becoming who you are as long as you are being true to yourself.      The great Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu, said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  The first step begins with your heart.