Many years ago when I became interested in calming my mind I made a lot of mistakes. There was a lot of trial and error but those mistakes actually led to many breakthroughs and helped me grow.

When I became what I like to call a student of the mind I very often thought that in order for me to achieve peace of mind that I had to discover, find or achieve something.

It was like I was always searching for the next Guru, a mysterious distant location where I could meditate, or an ancient text that would teach me the secrets to getting out of my head so I could experience the bliss of the present moment.

However, when I started my journey of calming my mind, I would constantly come across a principle that all those teachers talked about. That principle was that calming the mind doesn't really have anything to do with things that are external to us. This hit me hard. In other words, we tend to think that in order to achieve something that we need to acquire something from the outside.

When it comes to calming the mind what we need to understand is that the process of calming the mind starts internally. It's not so much about achieving something external, it's more so about concentrating on what's inside of us first.

A morning yoga session peering into the jungle in Ubud, Bali.

You see, a busy mind is kind of like an ocean in a wind storm. In a wind storm, the waves are huge. However, deep within the ocean, we know that there is a calmness. The same holds true for the mind. To calm the mind, it's not really about achieving something externally, it's about turning off the noise internally so the calmness can come to the forefront and be experienced.

The average person thinks thousands of thoughts every single day. It's not so much about finding something peaceful, it's more so about turning off those thoughts (particularly the negative thoughts).

We are not meant to be thinking 24/7. We are meant to think when we need to and spend the remainder of the time living in the present moment. Of course, this is easier said than done. But it's not about being perfect at it, it's about getting better at it.

I traveled to the top of Mauna Kea one of the largest mountains in the world, although most of the mountain lies under water. The clouds surrounded my view point and it felt like I was entering into heaven.

We all have a peace that lives deep within us. When we turn off the noise (thinking) we are able to experience a peace that is lying dormant, waiting to be felt and experienced.

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