• Hearing voices raised in strident and hostile tones is a cue for me to be a peacemaker.

• When I see a map or a globe, I am reminded of the importance of working for peace in our time.

• Whenever I get angry, I vow not to add to the sum total of violence in the world.

• Blessed is Peacemaker who guides our steps in the way of peace.

This mantra comes from the lyrics of John Lennon's song.

Fran Peavey’s experience, which is related on p. 353 of Spiritual Literacy, is the inspiration for this exercise, “Hugging the World.”

Breathe out three times. See and sense the round globe of the Earth in your arms. With your fingers, trace the shape of the continents, dip into the waters of the oceans, walk up the sides of the mountains. Reach out to any beings you encounter as you travel around the globe. Feel what they are feeling. Hear what they are saying.

Breathe out one time. Sense and know that you are comforting the beings and comforting the earth. Then open your eyes.

We must also be careful to avoid ingesting toxins in the form of violent TV programs, video games, movies, magazines, and books. When we watch that kind of violence, we water our own negative seeds, or tendencies, and eventually we will think and act out of those seeds.
— Thich Nhat Hanh in Living Buddha, Living Christ

To Practice This Thought: Go on a violence fast. Give up entertainments which contain any kind of violence.

Equanimity is the quality of being even-tempered and unaffected by outside influences. It does not mean that you are indifferent to what is happening around you; you just don't allow it to upset your inner peace. Here's a basic equanimity practice. Whenever you feel a strong emotion coming on — a response to pain or pleasure, success or failure, extreme stress or thorough relief — say to yourself, "This, too, will pass."

• In an essay in Peace Is the Way Henri Nouwen writes about not judging either friends or enemies.

• Naomi Levy in To Begin Again recommends allowing ourselves to cry and bask in the healing peace of tears.