5 Habits for Inner Peace
At one point in your life, did you ever feel like you needed more inner peace? We've all been there. From family drama and workplace issues to being a perfectionist with a mind that's constantly buzzing with thoughts, deliberations, frustrations, and worries, life can certainly get overwhelming with its force majeure situations.
While there's no magic wand to grant you inner peace on the spot, there's a conscious journey you can get started with cultivating inner peace intentionally. How so? With some habits you maintain over time.
To take you a step closer to achieving your inner balance, here are 5 habits for inner peace, mindfulness, and calmness.
1. Change Your World by Updating Your Expectations
"High expectations lead to disappointment" – isn't there some (or a lot) of truth to that? More often than not, the reason for our disappointment in life is out of our own expectations that life will always turn out to be the way we want it to be, including people.
Accordingly, when we end up with unfulfilled expectations, that causes frustration, resentment, depression, and most of all, in-appreciation for the good things. Instead, we tend to spotlight the negatives of our lives. Well, that needs to change.
No two people are the same, and that makes the world a very diverse place. With that being the case, you should always be prepared to encounter exceedingly different situations from your expectations, and that's normal.
Since surprise and shock tend to be emotional amplifiers, it's best not to expect anything from anyone. For instance, if you're waiting on a job that you're totally convinced that you'll get will be significantly more disappointing than just not getting it without having any predictions on what will happen. Yes, it'll be disappointing as well, but mildly!
So, the key to getting closer to achieving inner peace is to let go of unrealistic expectations (or expectations altogether). While it isn’t a button to click on to magically get rid of your expectations, the idea is to get into the habit of putting your expectations in check and updating them when needed.
Once you get used to not expecting "the world" from everyone, you'll find yourself much calmer than you were before.
2. Be of Service to Others
We’re aware that this isn’t your typical scenario of inner peace and that, for most people, inner peace stirs up imaginations of a person sitting alone sipping on their coffee in peace. But actually, inner peace extends way beyond that and also includes feeling fulfilled.
To achieve that optimal mix of peacefulness and fulfilment, an excellent place to start is always to join a community that works for a cause. When you serve others, you help yourself too. If you’ve ever done service work before, you’ll know how rewarding the experience is. And if you haven’t, speak to those who have to get inspired, or even search about the emotions!
You’ll come across quotes like “the sole meaning of life is to serve humanity”, “being of service to others is what brings true happiness”, “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”, and much more. Therefore, it’s evident that service will make your life more meaningful, more rewarding, and definitely, more peaceful.
On that note, it’s worth mentioning that being of service to others also doesn’t have to entail community service or volunteerism; it can be as simple as being kind. Tell someone they look good today, give a little child some candy, hold the door open, let someone go in front of you in a line, and anything else you can think of, and you’ll be well on your way to peacefulness!
In helping others achieve “some” peace, you’ll find yours in the process through a positive attitude. Peace feels better when it’s shared!
3. Acknowledge Your Emotions
To get to your inner peace, you have to first acknowledge your internal chaos. That may be through talking about how you feel, writing about it, or even just thinking about it. Whatever you choose to do, just steer clear of avoiding how you feel and "faking it until you make it" because that's not healthy for you.
If you’re wondering why, the reason is that you’ll simply be bottling up your emotions, and in a split second, you’ll find yourself exploding over something minor that wouldn’t usually trigger the same response from you. And that’s buildup!
While it’s true that no one wants to feel negative emotions, it’s equally true that your emotions alert you to what’s happening to you internally, and you need to acknowledge that to get better. To put this in perspective, when you see a ball flying in your direction, you immediately keep your head down, right? Why do you do that? To avoid getting a concussion, correct?
That's exactly how emotions work too. So when you feel like you want to cry, shout, throw something, or just sit and reflect on how disappointed you are, do that. Otherwise, you'll continue to be stressed out and upset in the back of your head, no matter how hard you try to dismiss your feelings.
The bottom line is that you should welcome your emotions rather than run away from them so that next time when you're confronted with similar difficult situations, you'd have trained your brain to be calmer, and the situations will no longer be as hard to deal with as they used to be.
4. Connect With Your Inner-Self
When it comes to fully achieving inner peace, it's essential to be fully connected with your inner self. It's basically as if you'll deliberately channel "peace energy" into your body so that it becomes a reality.
One of the highly acknowledged ways of connecting to your higher self is through guided meditation. Sit still, take a breath, let go of your feelings and thoughts, and just be “present” and embrace being there with yourself. Numerous studies have proved that meditation has countless health benefits, including reducing pain, anxiety, and stress.
Not to mention, it works wonders for improving concentration, boosting creativity, and clarifying thoughts. In other words, it exercises your brain and empowers you to see yourself from a new vantage point and separate yourself from the repeated thoughts you’ve been having, allowing them to just flow out of your mind.
Let meditation help you tune out the world, relax, de-stress, and rejuvenate. Once you start incorporating meditation into your daily life, it won’t be long until you notice that you’re more focused, calm, happy, and sensible.
Also, if you're hesitant about whether meditation will work for you since a lot of people tend to be doubtful at first, remember that our natural state isn't stress and chaos – it's actually calmness. That's why nearly all human beings strive to reach resolution, peacefulness, and tranquility because that's our minds' and bodies' original and natural state.
Chaos is just inherited as a result of life's pressure, but peace is what we aspire for at the end of the day. For that reason, practicing mindfulness, meditating, connecting with yourself, and similar practices are all steps towards self-love, self-discovery, relaxation, and peace.
5. Detach Yourself From Anything That Doesn’t Serve You
Are there some activities in life that you feel rather uneasy about participating in? Some people you don’t enjoy being around? A job that makes you anxious and stressed? The answer is probably yes to one or all of these. Well, you should know that if you want to remain peaceful, you must detach from anything that compromises that.
Nine times out of ten, you'll find out that you really have both the will and the power not to participate or take part in anything that makes you feel worse, not better. You owe it to yourself to avoid negativity and toxicity at all costs.
The best taste of peace you could ever get is when you’re around people that make you happy, working in a job that fulfils you, and engaging in activities that you take pleasure in, so when anything shakes your peaceful bubble, take it out of the equation!
Truly Find Inner Peace!
When all is said and done, we’d confidently say that the ultimate key to achieving peace is to have the intention of peace in the first place. When you genuinely strive to achieve peace, you’ll be surprised by how fast it gravitates in your direction, too!
No matter how much you feel that life is taking you by surprise, remember that things don't just happen to you – you have full control over your life; all you need to do is take proactive steps towards instilling a new peaceful mindset for yourself. Only then, you'll be able to make the right decisions and participate in activities that maintain your peace, not compromise it.
