The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict-A Must Read Book That Will Change Your Life

A friend recommended The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict to me quite a while ago. I was intrigued by the title and the concept behind the book, but filed it away in the back of my mind for some point in the future when I would have some extra time.

Fast forward to a few months later. I had laser eye surgery scheduled and was searching for some audio books to listen to during my recovery. I knew I'd be keeping my eyes closed as much as possible for several days, and thought some great audio books would be the perfect way to stay entertained. I remembered this book was on my list of books I wanted to read and got my hands (or rather my ears) on the audio version.

This book was nothing like what I expected it to be. I had high expectations for it, but it exceeded my expectations in every way. The concepts in this book were so eye opening, and there were several points where they gave me a real metaphorical kick in the behind, but I humbly and gratefully received it.

I felt like the ideas in this book were so important that I wanted to make sure they were really ingrained in my head. Because of this, I chose to listen to this book twice. Yes, I listened to it twice within a week even though I had other audio book options available.

I listened to this book almost two full months ago, and I still think about the principles I learned from it on a regular basis. I find myself questioning my thoughts and behaviors when I'm in a contentious situation, and really digging deep to figure out what's going on inside of me that's causing me to have a heart at war.

Just knowing how impactful this book has been in my life, really makes me want the whole world to read it.

Can you imagine a world where people were able to recognize and correct the thought patterns that lead them into a contentious state before any real conflict arises? It would be amazing right? That's why I want everyone to read this book.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect at maintaining a heart at peace, but I'm definitely better at it than I was before this book came into my life.

Just a quick note to the reader: If possible, I recommend reading this book rather than listening to it. Based on my listening experience, it sounded like there were probably some useful diagrams in the book, that would have been nice to see rather than just having them explained to me. I feel like this is the type of book that would be great to make notes in too. Let's be honest. I'm probably going to end up buying myself a hard copy to read even though I've already listened to it twice.

Peace is like a ripple from a raindrop on a pond. It starts with one person and gradually spreads outward. One heart at peace leads to more hearts at peace and eventually this rippling effect leads to a world at peace. This concept sounds simple, but probably feels unachievable to most people. After all, do you know anyone, yourself included that has a heart at peace all the time?

Most of us recognize that from time to time when a personality or a situation rubs us the wrong way, our hearts have a tendency to go to a state of war. This doesn't necessarily mean that we intend physical harm, but it does mean that for whatever reason, we don't feel at peace with a certain person or situation.

The heart at war also has a rippling effect, so the key is to recognize when our heart is turning to a state of war and then redirect our heart to a state of peace.

That is where this book comes in really handy.

I don't want to give away the best parts of the book, but I can let you know that as you read this book you will learn about four common thought patterns that lead people to have feelings of war in their hearts rather than peace.

I see myself as a pretty peaceful person, but as I learned about these thought patterns, I recognized that some of them were deeply ingrained within me, and I was able to identify multiple situations in my life where these subconscious thought patterns had led me to have a heart at war.

In some of these instances, my heart at war led to horrible results.

One other thing I realized was that in many situations where I'm "acting" peaceful, I am very much caught up in one of these thought patterns and no matter how peaceful my words and actions are, they really are just "acting." Yikes! That was a tough lesson for me to come to terms with.

Although the information about what causes us to have hearts at war is extremely useful, this book definitely doesn't leave us without solutions of how to cultivate a heart at peace.

Recognizing that our hearts are at war is important, because it gives us a realization that change is necessary, but without the tools to change our hearts, that recognition would be fruitless.

This book will give you the tools necessary to shift your heart from a state of animosity to a state of love and peace, and you will discover that this can happen in a really short amount of time if that is truly your desire.

Like I said before, after reading this book, I want everyone else to read it. It's a pretty quick read and absolutely worth the time. You might even find that like me, you feel like you want to read it over and over again.

Read this book, study this book, learn to recognize the root causes of a heart at war, and then apply the principles necessary to cultivate a heart at peace. You have the ability to turn your heart into the raindrop of peace that ripples out into your home, your work, and your entire community.