Becoming a Peaceful Warrior and Inspiring Leader

Extraordinary times, like the ones we are currently living, tend to bring out the best and the worst in everyone. Tendencies, beliefs, and even decisions get easily polarized because there are forces at hand that push us to make tough choices—about relationships, work, finances, health, and social issues. I cannot stress enough the need to choose love over fear every step of the way, because that choice alone makes the difference between resisting change (holding on to the past) and embracing what is happening and what is yet to come with faith and inner strength, while allowing your true nature to emerge. True love is not the overly emotional or passionate rapture we see in the movies. Its real meaning is the absolute absence of fear. When there is no fear, there is no need to justify or defend our beliefs: if we fully accept ourselves, we can open up to others and accept who they are, like young children do, at least until they are made to feel that they should be a certain way to meet the needs of the adults in their life. The urge to control life also disappears with love, and that takes care of a whole lot of the mental and emotional baggage that colors and hinders our perception. When fear is not the emotional motivator behind your choices, you become truly free to choose what is best for you, be it a partner, a job, a business, or anything else. You allow life to simply happen and support your own life purpose. As the planet shifts into a higher state of consciousness, the love/fear polarity defines the co-creation of your life. I you let go of fear and choose love instead, you can no longer adhere to the rigid and outdated patriarchal ways of perceiving life and others, because those are based on fear and its allies: stress, guilt, shame, anger, and the need to control. Love allows you to embrace your inner feminine qualities and to bring balance to everything you do; it gives you flexibility and openness, and makes you the vessel and vehicle of divine consciousness that you really are. In truth, love binds everything in the Universe; it is what scientists call the “God particle.” Choose Love to Become a Peaceful Warrior Love shapes you as a peaceful warrior. I know, the word “warrior” usually refers to those engaged in warfare and willing to fight for what they believe in. It brings images of courageous or wrathful men ready to kill and to be killed to protect or defend what they most cherish and value. So how can a warrior be peaceful if the word itself conveys the idea of war? Indeed, to become a peaceful warrior you fight only your own negative tendencies and wrong beliefs. Your toughest battles are internal and your victories translate as increasing clarity, wisdom, peace, faith, and compassion. Your main weapon is love, and your worst enemy fear. Like the samurai of old times, you have to be fully committed to the mental self-discipline of being a witness to yourself and discriminating between what truly serves your highest purpose and what doesn’t; between what is true to your nature and what simply feeds the ego-mind out of conditioning or habit; and then you also go through the pain of letting go what needs to go—your self-images and toxic relationships and environment. A peaceful warrior is an inspiring leader, and when I use the word leader here I am certainly not referring to the type of person who can rally up the masses to do what he or she wants; that’s just politics or, as I see it, the art of manipulation—no matter what the cause. If you are a peaceful warrior, rather than directing others, you uplift them with your ideas, words, or actions, and inspire them to take full responsibility for their own peace and happiness—to lead their own lives. In this sense, your leadership is not something you learn or need “briefing” for, like politicians do, because it arises from the light within. And since we are all connected, your own inner work helps with the transformation of humanity even if you do not have any seemingly prominent roles in the world. Peaceful warriors lead the silent, inner revolution occurring now, but of course, can also take a more active part in social changes. The leadership of a peaceful warrior is about inspiring, serving, and empowering others. This is a more feminine leadership model than the excessively masculine, dis-empowering, and isolating one we are so familiar with in the pyramidal, corporate-type world we currently live in. Peaceful warriors respect and honor individuality and walk amongst others, never feeling more important than the rest, yet with a clear sense of purpose that keeps them moving forward. True Leadership Is Mastery In Service To be a peaceful warrior, you need to perceive yourself as a vehicle of light and allow the understanding and wisdom acquired through your own self-exploration to shine through, without any appropriation of it. In other words, your sense of purpose and service becomes stronger than any idea about yourself or your roles in the world, and you develop the humility to lead through example, with no personal agenda or self-interest. This can only be accomplished when you gain enough self-knowledge and self-love to stop being attached to your false self-images and worrying about the opinions of others: when you are ready to shed your self-importance (ego) and focus on truly serving others, while continuously working on your self-growth. A peaceful warrior is absolutely committed to the inner work and never loses sight of it. Here are some more characteristics of a peaceful warrior and inspiring leader: 1. Your success serves a higher purpose: that of helping others grow and succeed. You find great satisfaction and joy in serving and empowering others while maintaining a clear sense of self (boundaries). 2. You find great joy in giving and are generous with your energy, time, and resources. You act from a sense of abundance, not lack, knowing that what you need and desire for your purpose is always available to you. 3. You are deeply grateful for and appreciative of what life has given you—from hardship to material abundance and human interaction. You know that everything serves a purpose and helps you and those around you grow. 4. You know and develop your unique gifts and have no sense of competition with others. Nobody is better than anyone else, although there is always room for improvement and growth. 5. You are clear about your own beliefs and use them to serve a higher purpose, never to impose them onto others. You remove wrong perceptions as you discover them, and are ready to walk your talk, as they say. 6. You care deeply about people and feel an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than you, in any way you can. You express empathy and compassion. 7. You don’t brag about yourself or take credit for someone else’s work or creative ideas. You know praise and criticism are but passing states of mind and don’t take anything too personally. 8. You take full responsibility for your whole life and do not blame anyone to make you feel more important or a victim. You know you shape your own perception and therefore your reality. 9. You embrace your emotions, but do not dwell in or completely identify with them to feed a false self-image. You acknowledge that all feelings and emotions are valid, and respect the feelings of others. 10. You accept life as it is, without trying to control anything or anyone, and perceive it as a mirror that shows you what you need to see and learn about yourself. 11. You keep a keen eye on the greedy mind and let go of your attachments to people, stuff, money, praise, respect, fame, and anything that conveys excess or lack. 12. You keep a positive attitude in life, especially during hard times, knowing that nothing is permanent and that you can learn from anything and everything. 13. You always choose love over fear, no matter what the situation. If faced with a problem, you look for a solution that serves or benefits everyone involved. So how close are you to becoming a true peaceful warrior? © 2012 Yol Swan. All rights reserved. Feel free to share this article with your own readers, as long as you include the byline below and preserve the hotlink: