True Peace
We do not analyze. We INTEGRATE
~ Bruce Lee
When we spend so much mental energy analyzing endlessly an unpleasant experience, we aren’t really analyzing at all. We are simply integrating all of that anxiety and stress into our present reality, which is the only reality we actually have. The future (and the past) is non-existent except in our minds. By integrating all of that fear about the future (or regret about the past) into our present lives, we drain the only energy we have, making it more likely that we will not handle stress well, if and when it becomes a present reality, because of our depleted state.
It is a strange thing in us that causes us to think that analyzing actually brings peace. In truth, greater inner peace brings more accurate analysis. Peace is only a present phenomenon. No one has peace tomorrow because tomorrow does not exist. And lamenting the past only hinders inner peace at the present moment.
The fruit of the Spirit includes peace. But I can only be filled with the Spirit right now. No one is promised a filling for tomorrow or even the next hour or minute. Walking in the Spirit is a stringing together of successful moments of present peace.
The typical mindset: If happy, then content.
The rarer mindset: If content, then happy.
No one can be content when stuck in “anxiety analysis.”