There is no real guidebook on how to be at peace with yourself. The reason is because ultimately peace to you is an individual journey that only you can work towards. You might feel at peace when you are finally living in a place that isn’t as chaotic and you aren’t dealing with flatmates that make you feel anxiety. Peace to you might involve incorporating daily meditation into your life. Whatever situation you are in, there are some habits you can immediately incorporate into your life so that you can have inner peace.
Commit to having inner peace. Simply saying you want peace in your life but not taking appropriate and deliberate actions will not yield positive results for you. If you truly want to change your life and embrace peace, then you must take deliberate and committed actions to attain peace.
Recognize that inner peace does not come from desiring more and more. You will find it difficult to achieve peace when you are always searching for the next big thing. One day you are happy about the car you just bought, and then a few months later you are searching for the next brand car to buy. Always trying to find new things and get more things creates a cycle of always searching for something that you do not have. One of the first steps to achieving inner peace is allowing yourself to stop desiring material things you do not yet have, and enjoying what you do have now.
Do the right thing. Living a life of integrity is important to having inner peace. Not only does doing the right thing feel good, but it matches your values. Take a closer look at many areas of your life. What parts of your life tend to make you feel anxiety, upset, depressed or angry? You might find that you work in a company where you are encouraged to act unethically in order to make the business even more profitable. Or maybe you find yourself surrounded by people who do not have similar values to you. You might have habits that you feel do not align with your values but you struggle to ditch those habits. Attaining a lifestyle of integrity can be difficult at first, particularly if you haven’t been being authentic to your core values. Focus on doing something right today. Try to focus on what you can do today to reflect your integrity. Eventually doing the right thing will feel easier when you start making it a daily habit.
Let go. Seriously, let things and people go that are holding you back. Even if something currently isn’t in your life, let go. Let go of the abusive family member who has hurt you so much. Let go of the idea that an unrequited love will return your feelings. Let go of negative beliefs about yourself that only feed you lies and pain. Before you can find inner peace, you have to be willing to let go of the people, things and beliefs that are hurting you.
Accept others for who they are. What may be disrupting your peace is trying to change the people around you. Your focus may be too much on how to change your family, friends, partner or your colleagues. As difficult as it may seem right now, focus on accepting the person as who they are now, even if their actions seem harmful. You can try to encourage this person as best as you can, but eventually you have to realize that you are not responsible for the actions of others. Recognize your limits on helping a person out and take a step back and focus on yourself.
Be authentic. Stay true to who you are no matter what. It can sometimes be tempting to want to compare yourself to others. You might wish your life could be different so that others could like you more. Attaining peace can only happen when you truly accept yourself. You have to embrace who you are and remember that it’s most important that you like who you are. Sure, that does mean that some people may not like you, but it does mean you have a much greater chance of attracting people who love being around you.
Make mistakes. You might be thinking that mistakes could be the reason for the chaos in your life. Mistakes are normal. You can learn through your mistakes. From your failures, you can find success. Stop trying to attain perfectionism which can fill your life with unnecessary stress and is often unattainable. You can waste so much time, energy and resources on perfectionism when it is so much easier to be flexible and realize that you will make mistakes. It’s okay to make mistakes and for things to not sometimes turn out perfectly. From these experiences you can improve yourself, create a better product and figure out more effective ways to adapt and cope with a situation.
Be patient. One of the things holding you back may be your impatience. We can sabotage our own inner peace by getting angry and disappointed when things do not happen when we want them to happen. Remember that many things are outside of your control. It’s normal for you to wish things happened earlier or on your terms, but much of life does not work that way. Learn to be patient and watch how many things become easier once you accept that you cannot control the timelines in your life.
Forgive. Forgiveness is integral to peace. Focus on forgiving yourself for any past mistakes you may have had. All of us can make poor choices or mess up pretty badly in our lives. You don’t need to punish yourself for any choices you made in the past. Forgive yourself and move forward. The same goes for the other people in your life. Learn to forgive others who have hurt you in the past. When you let go of bitterness and anger towards people who have wronged you, you can open your heart to peace.
Appreciate what you have right now. You have so much in your life right now. There are amazing things happening for you right this very moment. You have probably made some good choices today. Appreciate the good things that have happened to you today, no matter how small they may seem. It’s easy to get lost in the big picture and not find time to appreciate the many things we take for granted. Forming a daily habit of appreciating the wonderful things in your life, will help you focus on the present.
Spend time in nature. Reconnect yourself with the outdoors. Have you ever realized you spent so much time indoors that when you went outside and got some fresh air, you instantly felt better? Taking time to be outside in nature is a great way to reconnect yourself with peace. If possible, try to spend some time outdoors each day.
Never give up. Life can be challenging at times. What is important is to never lose sight of where you want to be and to never give up hope. Keep preserving and staying strong.