I like Proteus's answer.
I definitely see peace as equilibrium. Balance.
There can be turmoil in the world but you don't see it walking in a park on a sunny day. While you're enjoying nature people are starving, dying, losing their homes, committing suicide, being cheated on, abused, etc.
I believe a Jedi's mind should be like the planet. One does not need to feel every prick of everything wrong to confirm that he or she has feelings. Probably the most famous example is Anakin not being able to be "at peace" with the inevitability of death. So what happened? He was consumed by his fear and it led to anger and hate and he became the bringer of the very death he feared.
Where is your consciousness within the world? Is it on the sick and the dying? Or is it in the park? Is it at your desk behind your computer? Through meditation one can work to perfect a mastery over one's consciousness, moving it around the body. For instance if you have pain in your ear and you pinch your leg the pain in your ear is still there but your consciousness focuses on the more intense pain. Interesting how the body uses pain to alert the mind to act. So one cannot say it is a purely negative thing. It is simply a thing. How you use a thing is what makes it good or bad.
In the example of losing a job, there is a "pain" that is natural and normal to feel; especially depending on how it happened. You may feel a sense of loss. You may also feel anxiety and insecurity. How will you find the next job? How will you pay your bills in the meantime? The more you think about these things the more stress builds up... the more tension builds up... and these can have negative effects.
Personally, I choose to worry about the things that are within my control. Whatever temporary pain I feel I use as very quick "call to action". The action is thinking about what my next move is. Beyond this the pain is redundant... unproductive. I focus on the next move, not the pain that is designed to trigger it. Sometimes it makes me seem like I don't care. Of course, I do. But what will be the result of letting "bad things" get under my skin? Will it somehow improve the situation?
Losing one's job is junction in a series of decisions, either made by you or others. You can only control the decisions you make. If you could have done your job better to save your job it's too late now. It's spilled milk. If the only option is to clean it up then what else is there to think about?
I think being at peace is one's ability to accept reality. Reality is not designed to make your life perfect as if the world revolves around you. The larger your ego is (keeping in mind ego is necessary for survival) the more bothered you become when the world doesn't treat you as if you are the priority. You're not the priority. You are your own priority but not the priority of others. The same negative things that happen to others can happen to you and some of it will. We are not the exception or the statistical anomaly that gets to escape all the challenges of life. That's life. It's not designed to be fair because it wasn't designed for any one person. Losing your job might mean that the company saves enough money for 3 other people to keep theirs. If you are cut because of your performance then you might have been bringing down other people and holding the company back from being more successful which might translate into more people getting hired. Everything is connected and when something is bad for one of us it tends to be good for someone else.
So whose problems do we focus on? Whose problems can we solve? Anakin wasn't okay with reality and therefore he wanted to change it by any means necessary. One has to surrender their will (ego) to the force. One has to accept reality and understand that not everything is in their control. Power is a responsibility not to be sought lightly or obtained recklessly because power corrupts. The ability to change the world also helps to create a personality that constantly chooses to change the world into something that benefits their own life. Pain tells us when we should act. However the right decision comes to a clear mind that isn't held hostage by fear or anxiety. It isn't wrong to have passion but the Jedi have restrictions because of the power they have. When passion rules the mind you cannot make clear decisions so what do you then do with the power you have? Who does it serve?
When we approach a problem emotionally we often don't fix anything. We "do something" that we "feel" is a solution only because it makes us "feel" better. If "feeling better" is your goal that doesn't make the problem go away. It only dilutes the pain the was supposed to make you act. But if your action is only to suppress or subdue the pain then the problem is still there. Peace is not about trying not to feel. It is about accepting reality such that your response to external stimuli isn't exaggerated because it is balanced by a strong internal force. Whatever happened happened; but it shouldn't make you lose your mind and cause you to react without thinking. Even if you experience something sad you cannot be ruled by sadness. When we do not have peace we give ourselves over... our bodies... our minds... we give actions over and allow darkness to act through us; to use us like a tool. I am the one who must ultimately have power over me, myself, and I so that I can co-exist with others.
Peace is not the absence but the co-existence of good and evil.
