2-26-26 Day 34 of 64 Day Peace Challenge, Gratitude, Financial Freedom Affirmations and Visualization

It’s time for our 2-26-26 Day 34 of 64 Day Peace Challenge, Gratitude, Financial Freedom Affirmations and Visualization!

What is the 64 Day Peace Challenge?

Follow along as we do Day #34 of our 64 Day Peace Challenge, inspired by the 2,300 mile 112 day Walk For Peace from Fort Worth Texas to Washington DC by the Venerable Monks.

The monks started their journey on October 26, 2025 and finished their journey on Valentine’s Day February 14, 2026, when they returned to the leader Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara’s Buddhist Temple Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center.  

There were 20 monks from Laos, Vietnam, France, New York, Utah, Virginia and Myanmar (Burma).  They didn’t know each other before the walk, and most had never walked this far for this long.

The monks stayed in Fort Worth Texas and on Lunar New Year’s Eve, Monday Feb 16 in the evening, they had a gathering and many of the monks shared their experiences on the walk.  The senior monk from Laos shared his experience.

He spoke in English and he said that when he joined the Walk For Peace he didn’t think he could do it.  So he prepared his own car to follow along in case he couldn’t handle it anymore after 2 weeks, so he would have a ride home.

He said when the organizer and leader of the walk, Bhikkhu Pannakara, asked him to talk he was very nervous.  He felt like his English was not good enough.  But Bhikkhu Pannakara told him his English was great and asked him to talk several times.

He said that he had peace, and he was wondering how to share peace with others.  You can’t give others peace even if you have it yourself.  He said he wasn’t smiling because he was thinking about what to say!

He liked how Bhikkhu Pannakara taught the peace practice, and taught that.

When the first crowd of people formed along the road to support them, he saw all the cars and the people and thought there was a concert or something.  When Bhikkhu Pannakara told him them that the people were coming out for them, he was so surprised, and very touched.

He appreciates and felt so good about the people who bowed to them, who gave them flowers and gifts on the road.  He saw the people crying and smiling at them and it made him happy.

He misses the walk and the people who came out everyday.

I started watching their talks on January 15, because I was feeling sad that day. I heard about the monks walking for peace so I decided to find out more about them. I saw all of the people who are gathering to see them, give them gifts, thank them, kneel before them and it was so beautiful I just cried.

The leader Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara speaks about how we do not have peace of mind because a single word or action can trigger us.

He says it’s often from the people close to us, our family members especially.

Just 2 nights ago my husband Jomel asked me to stop nagging and I was mad.  I reacted by saying sorry and leaving the kitchen and doing the actions I need to do to go to bed as quickly as possible.

I took time to do the 1 hour of personal reflection before bed and I forgave myself for getting mad, and forgave him too.  It wasn’t easy for me to do!  But I knew that I was the one suffering and I needed to do it to create peace in myself.

That night my 12 year old son Jordan asked me how to forgive people.  I told him that I usually think of when I’ve done what they did or when I’ve done something bad to someone else.  It makes me realize that I am no different from them, and that sometimes we say or do things that we don’t mean. Then I’m able to forgive the other person.

In the talk that I share here, the leader and organizer Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, said to create peace of mind and happiness we need to practice.

He recommends doing a practice to create peace in our mind for 64 days in order to create a habit. So, I started this 64 day Peace Challenge. I share the exact steps in my live video and in this blog post.

I wake up around 3:40am every morning and go live everyday at 5am. I use the advice Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara gave on how to wake up on time in the morning.

He advised that if it is hard for you to get up, then give yourself 5 seconds to live when you wake up. He said, when we die, it is 1 second to breath in and not breath out again. So 5 seconds is a lot of time to give ourselves before we wake up. Count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then get up no matter what.

I have already seen results in my life. I notice the diverse thoughts I have, good and bad, when I’m driving, eating, cooking, cleaning, brushing my teeth. I follow the practice and acknowledge the thought and come back to my breathing and the present moment. I notice that I’m enjoying my life more and I am reacting less.

I didn’t realize how much time I was spending thinking about the past, future, and imagining or planning. I notice now how much I’m used to talking while eating, or listening to music while driving, or even talking to myself while doing tasks.

On day 6 of the Challenge, my 12 year old son Jordan took my computer mouse to see if it could work from far away and it stopped working. I didn’t react, or get mad. I continued the best I could with my computer mouse pad until he fixed it. I was at peace! It felt so good.

When I told Jomel, my husband, about the experience I cried. I felt so bad about all the times in my life that I have reacted to Jordan. Usually I would feel irritated and say something like “What are you doing? You shouldn’t be playing with that. Don’t do it again!” Then he would feel bad and cry, and I would feel bad and apologize and it would take us 30 minutes to recover from the emotional trauma and apologies and getting over guilt.

I saved us so much time and emotional distress by just not reacting and staying in peace. It was a miracle!

I understand what the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara is saying when he says “We have wasted so much time already. Let’s not waste anymore time.”

That’s why it’s so important to do the practice.

I include an explanation of the peace practice in this post. If you want to join me, I’m live on Youtube everyday at 5am HST for 64 days to do his peace practice.

In one talk, he gives a lesson on how to release attachment and practice mindfulness. He talks about closing our eyes to meditate and focus only on our breathing. He says it’s ok if it feels boring in the beginning, if we keep falling asleep.

As long as we keep practicing we will get better. We might have a 1 hour meditation practice and we fall asleep for 59 minutes and focus on our breathing for only 1 minute. He says that’s ok, as long as we keep coming back to our breath. Eventually, we will master our mind, and we will naturally rise up, like a sunflower does to the sun.

Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara says that if you can be at peace without any conditions, then you are at peace. Peace starts from inside ourselves. Only we can create peace in our lives, only we can take it away.

He mentioned that when they walked, some people would look them in the eye and curse at them.  They had cars go by and purposely have black smoke go on them.  He said he would react by wishing them peace, love and a life full of kindness, and he would really mean it in his heart.

When the monks first started their journey, no one except their support team was with them. No one really knew about it and there were very few people standing or waiting for them on the roads.

Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara said he thought it would be great if they met and helped 1,000 people on the walk. He said in the beginning they only brought with them 1,000 peace bracelets. Usually they give out peace bracelets at the end of their talk. At the talk in Alexandria he said they have given away over 100,000 peace bracelets.  He never expected to see so many people come out to see them in person or online.

What is the Peace Practice?

Here are the steps Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara recommends for mindfulness, peace, compassion and loving kindness.

Step #1 Write Today is Going to Be My Peaceful Day

First, everyday in the morning write “Today is going to be my peaceful day. ”

Then read the sentence a few times in your mind, and then say it out loud.

Decide for yourself that today is going to be your peaceful day. Then no one can take that away from you. No matter what anyone else does or says, if we don’t take it in, then it isn’t ours.

It’s important to write it down with a pen and paper, don’t use an electrical device.  This pairs your intention to your body.

Then reading it in your mind pairs your mind to the intention.

Finally, saying it out loud declares it to the Universe, and makes your voice pair with your intention.

Step #2 Mindfulness: Listening to Your Breathing or Heartbeat

Then we practice being aware of our breathing or heartbeat. Today we counted our breaths in our mind.

We counted “1” when we breathed in and “1” when we breathed out.  Then we counted “2” for in and “2” for out and so on until we count to “5”.

After you get to “5”, you start over and go to “6”, and then “7” and so on until you get to “10”.

Then after “10” you start over again.

If you get distracted, start over and focus on your breath. Be nice to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for being distracted.

When thoughts come up to distract us, just say “thought, thought” and then return to our breath. We acknowledge the thought but we then leave it alone. The same is true for feelings. If you feel numb, or tired or pain – acknowledge the feeling by saying “feeling, feeling”, and then go back to your breath.

Step #3 Practice Mindfulness During the Day

The Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara suggests we practice this everyday for 64 days to create the habit, and then keep doing it after to stay peaceful.

We can do our mindfulness breathing for 1 minute out of every hour that we are working.  During lunch hour, instead of talking with our friends about the world or social media we can focus on our breathing or heartbeat.

The Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara suggests doing only one thing at a time, since the mind can only focus on one thing at a time. He says to put away our cell phones when we are studying, cooking and doing other things.

He also says not to talk, listen to music or watch anything when eating!!!

Sometimes I really want to hop on Facebook or Youtube and see what the monks are doing or look up another talk. However, Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara said the monks aren’t a parade or a concert. We need to be mindful in our everyday life, stop multi tasking and build our focus and concentration by doing the practice.

Our lives matter, and we must take time to love ourselves.

Step #4 Practice Mindfulness and Forgiveness 1 Hour Before Bed

He also suggests we put away our cell phones 1 hour before we go to bed at night.  He says this is the time where we love ourselves.

We are not serving others, we are taking time for ourselves.

During that time we do our mindfulness breathing, and also take time to review our day. If we did something wrong, ask for forgiveness. Forgive ourselves and promise to never do it again. Plan to make it right the next day.

If someone did something wrong to us, forgive them.

What Is The Financial Freedom Practice?

After doing our Peace Practice, we did our minute of Thank Yous, Financial Freedom affirmations and visualization.  This is our financial freedom practice that I’ve developed over the years to create the results I have financially.

I learned all these strategies from other mentors who have taught me the skills to get out of debt and not have to work the job I was working for a living.

I am a full time mom, part time blogger, coach, teacher, investor, wife, daughter, board member and so many other roles.

I exercise daily.  I have time for a spiritual practice.

The Thank You practice is saying thank you and feeling grateful for 1 minute.

The Financial Freedom Affirmations are reading out loud or repeating sentences and questions that promote financial freedom.

The Financial Freedom Visualization is imagining that you are already financially free.

You can do these practices in less than 10 minutes everyday, and then just go on with your day.

I find them to be very effective, which is why I still do them today and I am sharing them with you.

When and Where Are We LIVE?

I’m live everyday at 5am HST / 11am EST during this 64 Day Peace Challenge at https://youtube.com/creativeabundancenow

Visit the blog daily and follow the peace practice, gratitude, affirmations and visualization practice to become Financially Free!!!