Calm is something that seems ever more elusive these days. I look at the world and everything happening, and everything seems to be in upheaval. It seems to be especially prevalent in our teens and young adults as they have access to information, news and social media 24 hours a day on their smart phones. There is so much information everywhere, and half of it isn’t true, or only partly true. Truth is hard to come by. Everyone has so many differing opinions and all the articles and information to back it up based upon a simple google search. No matter what your opinion is there is someone else who agrees with you, and some “expert” out there who has all the information for you that agrees with your opinion. The problem though is that not all of them are correct. But how many of us want to believe that what we think is wrong. Consequently, we have this constant upheaval all around us, all the time.
What do we do about all this chaos? How do we find calm within ourselves when the whole world around us is falling apart? I have found 2 sources that have helped me find calm. The first is my Heavenly Father. He is the source of all truth. We are all eternal beings having a temporal or mortal experience. We existed before we came to earth, and we will exist after we leave this earth. What happens here, good or bad has no effect on eternity in general, just on us individually based upon the choices we make. If we choose to draw closer to our Heavenly Father through obedience, we can have peace, not the worldly kind of peace that is fleeting, but actual, deep down in our hearts, peace. This peace leads to calm. We gain this peace by walking with our Savior no matter what happens around us. After all, we were sent down here to be tested, would we follow our Savior and allow Him to help us, even when things got hard, or would we turn away? Calm inside us comes when we are obedient, when we follow Him, and when we allow Him to calm our troubled hearts. This is a deep and abiding calm that will help us through difficulties big and small.
The second things I have found that brings calm for me is meditation. I have always had a negative opinion of meditation. I never tried it though to see if it would help. Last year I decided to purchase a Beach Body streaming membership. I have always preferred to work out at home and found this to be a great way to do so without being bored, since there are so many different workouts. I still love this app. But one of the “workouts” on the site was a 21 day meditation program. I was in a better mindset of trying something new, so one day I tried the first meditation. They are 10 minutes or less, so it wasn’t hard to fit it into my schedule for the day. The first one was titled Calm. I sat and participated in that one meditation program and I was hooked. I couldn’t believe how mentally refreshing that was, and it stuck with me throughout the day and week ahead. Since then I have usually tried to complete at least one a week. My mind races a lot, with everything going on around me, schedules to make sure sync with each other, the chaos of the world, etc. This has helped me to still my mind. I have always read the scripture that says Be Still, and have had a hard time achieving that stillness for very long. But now I understand better what it is and how to get there, even when everything around me is in motion. Meditation has also helped me to better still my mind when I pray, which has made my prayers more thoughtful and heartfelt. I am grateful that I was willing to set aside my predisposed ideas I had about meditation to try it once.
There is so much in this world that cannot be controlled by us personally. But our mindset and our ability to talk to God are things we can control. I am so grateful to learn better how to be still. I am also grateful that my Heavenly Father knows what I need to learn and grow, and when need be, He will help me soften my heart so that I can try new things. What are some things you do to be calm?
Stephanie Richey Art 
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