Choosing Joy & Peace in a Rushing Society

I almost entitled this “Choosing Joy and Peace in a Rushing World.” But the truth is—our world isn’t rushing. We are.

Society is caught up in the hustle and grind, the endless push to do more, have more, and become more. But if you step outside, you’ll notice something different. Planet Earth isn’t interested in rushing or chaos. Nature still moves at the same steady rhythm it always has.

The gentle breeze on a summer day doesn’t hurry to get someplace else.
The ocean tides move in and out in perfect rhythm, never frantic, never late.
The lush green forest stands quiet and still each spring, breathing life back into the air.
Elk and moose walk slowly through valleys, just as they have for thousands of years.

Nature hasn’t changed. Except, of course, in the ways it’s been forced to change by human hands. Left on its own, it is generally calm, steady, and peaceful. There’s no frantic rushing in the natural world—only presence.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s a clue for us all.

Stepping Into Peace

When we pause long enough to sit with nature—to let a quiet forest wash over us, to listen to the rhythmic crash of waves, to feel the softness of the wind—we remember what peace feels like. We remember that joy does not live in speed, but in being present. In setting the phone down and looking at the people near us.

The more we let nature shape us - the way it was really meant to be - the more we can reorient our lives around peace rather than chaos.

The Brain: What We Feed It Shapes Us

Our brains are incredible. They’re constantly adapting, shifting, and reshaping themselves based on what we give them. Scientists call this neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to rewire itself depending on our habits, thoughts, and experiences.

Think of it like this: every thought you think, every song you listen to, every show you watch, every word you speak—they all carve little pathways in your brain. The more you repeat them, the stronger those pathways get.

• If you constantly consume stress, darkness, negativity, and noise? Your brain wires itself to live in stress, darkness, negativity, and noise.

• But if you fill your mind with gratitude, uplifting conversations, calming music, time in nature, and intentional stillness? Your brain rewires itself to see joy, peace, and beauty more easily.

Your reality is shaped not just by what happens to you—but by what you feed your brain.

Music, Television, and the Brain

Music isn’t just background noise—it actually changes the way your brain fires. Every song has layers: lyrics, rhythm, and frequency. Together, they send signals straight into your nervous system.

• Lyrics matter. When you sing along to a song about anger, heartbreak, or despair, you’re rehearsing those emotions in your mind. Repeated often enough, they carve grooves of sadness, resentment, or hopelessness into your brain’s pathways. The opposite is also true: uplifting lyrics, gratitude, and hope-filled music reinforce joy and peace.

• Frequencies matter, too. Music is measured in hertz (Hz)—the vibration speed of sound. Certain frequencies calm the nervous system and promote relaxation (think of soft piano or classical music). Others—especially very high or very low, pounding frequencies—can overstimulate the brain, triggering stress or agitation. That’s why some music feels healing, while other songs leave you restless or even irritable.

• Television and streaming shows work the same way. The images, storylines, and emotional tones you watch don’t just entertain you; they shape how your brain expects life to be. If you constantly watch violence, chaos, or drama, your brain learns to be on edge, anticipating conflict. If you feed it calming, uplifting, or creative content, your brain begins to expect and create more of that in real life.

Your brain doesn’t separate imagination from reality. When you watch something on screen or listen to something in your headphones, your brain responds as if you’re experiencing it yourself. That’s powerful—and it means what you consume really does become part of you.

The Social Media Mirror

Then there’s social media—the endless scroll of curated lives. On the surface, it seems harmless: beautiful people, flawless bodies, picture-perfect homes, vacations, and families. But your brain processes these images as reality, even if you know they’re filtered, staged, or edited.

Here’s how it works:

• Comparison wiring. The human brain is wired to compare—it’s a survival mechanism. But social media hijacks this wiring. Instead of comparing ourselves to our real community (neighbors, family, friends), we compare ourselves to edited, filtered highlight reels. The brain often can’t tell the difference, leaving us feeling “less than” without realizing why.

• Reward loops. Social media apps are designed to keep you hooked. Each like, heart, or comment hits your brain with a little dopamine spike—the same chemical that fires in gambling addictions. Over time, your brain learns to crave the scroll, not because it brings peace, but because it brings a hit of stimulation.

• Body image distortion. Repeated exposure to filtered, flawless faces and bodies reshapes how the brain perceives what’s “normal.” Over time, real bodies—including your own—can begin to feel wrong or not enough, even if you logically know better. This can erode confidence, increase anxiety, and steal joy.

Why It Matters

When you understand that every sound, word, and image is input into your brain’s operating system, you start to see why peace feels so far away in our rushing society. If you constantly feed yourself chaos, your brain will produce chaos. But if you feed yourself calm, gratitude, and truth, your brain will be rewired to live from that place.

Your brain is absorbing all the time. Your nervous system is listening. Your reality is being shaped every single day by what you consume.

So the real question becomes: What are you feeding your mind?

Choosing Joy and Peace

In a society rushing headlong into exhaustion, we can choose differently. We can learn from the forest, from the tides, from the breeze that never hurries. We can guard our minds like we guard our health, paying attention to what we let in and what we let grow.

Joy and peace aren’t accidents—they are choices. And every small choice matters. We build joy and peace with our habits and our choices everyday.

So maybe today, instead of scrolling endlessly, you walk outside and listen to the birds. Instead of turning on the news, you turn on a calming song. Instead of speaking worry, you speak life over yourself, your family, and your friends.

Little by little, thought by thought, moment by moment—you can rewire your brain toward peace.

And when you do, you’ll find that the rushing society around you doesn’t have the final say. You do.