Inner peace requires external validation

We like to think of inner peace as something self-contained, a state of mind independent of the world. But how can we even define "inner" without an "outer"?

Your sense of self is constantly shaped by the external--your relationships, your environment, the way the world responds to you. If you were truly indifferent to external validation, would you even recognize yourself?

Inner peace isn't about shutting out the world; it's about aligning with it. The trick isn't to deny the need for external validation--it's to choose whose validation actually matters.