The Key To Inner Peace

To know what the key to inner peace is, we need to start with knowing what inner peace is. I looked it up and this is the description I found :

“Inner Peace : A state of inner peace can be maintained through equanimity. Equanimity is a skill you can learn which helps you keep a calm and balanced state of mind, regardless of the various ups and downs that life throws your way. So, you’re okay if things are okay but you’re also okay if things aren’t feeling okay.”

I think it’s a very apt description that gives us so much to think about. Considering attaining equanimity is daunting to say the least! How is it possible to be okay when things aren’t okay?

There are things that you can do and these include :

Meditation – meditation in whatever form you practise, is essentially about leaning into a mental state of silence. Silencing the mind, whilst difficult, is not impossible. It’s about sitting in the silence, feeling the silence, becoming familiar with the silence and learning to love it.

Taking a break from social media – This is a biggie! Just think about the amount of hours you spend online. We know that our feeds on social media are specifically curated according to what we pay most attention to. It is really big brother watching, seeing what it perceives you prefer to look at, and sending you more and more of ‘that’. Taking a break from social media, means that you’ll have more time to spend with real people. More time to spend outdoors. More time to do things that you enjoy doing. Why not give it a try?

Practising breathwork – Breathwork is something fairly new, but the advantages to you both mentally and physically are just amazing. Breathing properly, deeply and consciously, brings more oxygen into the body. Oxygen is so healing for you body and absolutely so essential to life. Some of the advantages of breathwork include consciously and mindfully changing your breathing patterns to improve relaxation. There are many reported benefits of breathwork meditation, from reducing stress and anxiety to improving sleep and mood. It may also help with the symptoms of certain physical illnesses.

Being kind – It feels outrageous that being kind needs to be included in a list of things to do to bring about inner peace! Yet here it is! There is so much to be gained from a personal perspective when you treat others with kindness – it’s pretty much resetting your focus and your attitude to others and your life in general. It fires up your body’s physical and psychological reward system so that you release so many more feel-good hormones into your body and that’s always a good thing.

Taking a walk – Being able to take a walk in nature is preferable to your well-being. But sometimes we’re not close to nature and it’s not possible. That’s okay – take a walk anyway. Make it a point of taking the doggies out for a daily walk around the block if necessary. If you don’t have dogs, just go on your own. Walk a little around your complex. My goodness, take a walk around your garden. Walking is great exercise. It gives you time to think as well and when done properly, can become your own personal form of meditation.

Express yourself – Find something to do that expresses who you are. There are so many hobbies to participate in – you don’t need to be artistic or creative in any way. Even if you buy yourself an adult colouring in book and spend time colouring in beautiful patterns. Again, another form of meditation. Gives your mind time to switch off from the nagging thoughts that go around and around.

Practise every day mindfulness – Here too, this does not need to be meditation, but of course we know that there are so many benefits to meditation. With YouTube, the variety of meditations available for you to follow are endless. Find something that resonates with you and do it every day. You’ll be amazed at how you’ll discover an inner peace that you never even knew was possible. When we are mindful we can focus on the moment-by-moment experiences that help us enjoy life in its full glory. Mindfulness means to focus on what is happening right now; wherever we are, intentionally and without any judgment.

Laugh as much as you can – This is something that I do every day. I get my daily fix through watching funny clips on my phone and every night before I start watching my series or a movie, I find a comedian to watch or a comedic show to watch. Laughing is so good for you mentally and physically and the great thing about laughing is that it can become addictive – probably the only great thing that I can think of that you want to become addicted to!

I hope that these few tips are easy enough for you to follow and that you’ll start today to make them a part of your life. When you begin to feel the rewards of attaining your inner peace, you will know that you have the key – please pass it on!