2-7-26 Day 15 of 64 Day Peace Challenge, Gratitude, Financial Freedom Affirmations and Visualization

It’s time for our 2-7-26 Day 15 of 64 Day Peace Challenge, Gratitude, Financial Freedom Affirmations and Visualization!

What is the 64 Day Peace Challenge?

Follow along as we do Day #15 of our Peace Challenge, inspired by the Walk For Peace from Fort Worth Texas to Washington DC by the Venerable Monks. They are on Day 105 of their walk today and are continuing their walk in very cold Virginia!

I started watching their talks on January 15, because I was feeling sad that day and heard about the monks walking for peace. I watched one of their talks and 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.

I felt better, so I started watching them everyday and I’m practicing the actions to take to create peace of mind. The leader Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, recommended doing a practice to create peace in our mind for 64 days in order to create a habit. That is why I decided to follow his advice and do the peace practice he recommends as a 64 day Peace Challenge.

I started by going live on Youtube on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, I planned out how I could make this Challenge possible during the week when I take Jordan to school and have a more rigid schedule and decided to wake up at 3:40am or earlier every morning and go live everyday at 5am. Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara advised to give yourself 5 seconds to live when you 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 I have thoughts 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.

I think on day 6 of the Challenge, 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 for 64 days to do his peace practice.

Watch this talk given by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, the leader and organizer of the walk for peace.

In this 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.

In a recent talk, 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.

There are many talks by the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, as he talks almost everyday, twice a day. He changes his talk depending on his audience and the circumstances at the talk.

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 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.

Now they have people lining the street for miles as they walk. They are greeted by people in the morning when they leave, in the afternoon talk and in their evening talks. At state capitols, they are given proclamations by the Governor and State and City Officials greet them, and put their pins on his robe.

What is the Peace Practice?

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

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.

Then we practice the breathing exercise. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Count “1” when you breathe in and count “1” when you breathe out. Then count “2” when you breathe in and count “2” when you breathe out. Keep doing this until you get to “5”. Then start over and go the “6”, then start over and go to “7” and so on until you get to “10”.

If you get distracted while breathing, start over and breathe again from “1” to “5”.

When thoughts come up to distract us from our breathing, just say “thought, thought” and then return to our breathing. 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 breathing.

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

We can do it for 1 minute out of every hour that we are working. He also suggests we do this for 1 hour before we go to bed at night. In this 64 day challenge I will be taking time out for us to do the breathing exercise together!

Do it without your cell phone so that you don’t get distracted.

The Venerable Monk 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!!!

After doing our Peace Practice, we did our minute of Thank Yous, Financial Freedom affirmations and visualization.

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 gratitude, affirmation and visualization practice to become Financially Free!low the gratitude, affirmation and visualization practice to become Financially Free!