Six steps to greater inner peace
Being at peace with yourself requires practice, most of us are great at noticing our faults and criticising ourselves, and we need to learn how to be present and to be kind to ourselves!
Our brains get stuck in certain trains of thought- we form mental habits that can be really negative and destructive. We can form these habits when we are kids and can keep them alive and strong well into our adult life by giving them our attention. We get so used to this way of thinking that we believe that it is the truth, we walk around believing that we are never good enough or that nobody likes us. This leads to all kinds of problems and feelings of anxiety and
discontent.
Feeling more at peace with yourself requires learning how to accept your current circumstances and yourself. I know that for many of us this isn’t easy.
Six steps for achieving greater inner peace include:
- Noticing all of the good things in your life – maybe you can still see, hear, taste, touch and smell, lucky you! Start to use and notice all of your senses when you are eating, walking around and out in nature.
- Keeping a gratitude journal – maybe you have a loving family and a network of friends, enough food for three meals today and you have a comfortable home.
- Enjoy time outside and notice the natural beauty around you, get curious, listen to the birds, watch the insects, notice the flowers.
- Take care of yourself – eat well and move every day, make movement fun, walk with friends or your dog. Notice your surroundings as you walk, feel the air on your skin, feel your breath, your muscles etc.
- Start to be curious about how you view yourself and regularly check out what your inner dialogue is – sometimes the way we have learnt to talk to ourselves is so negative and destructive that we fail to see the good in our lives and in ourselves. You have the power to change this just by being aware of your thoughts and choosing which thoughts you give your attention to.
- Meditation and mindfulness are two techniques that may help you to become aware of your thoughts.
Once you are aware of your thoughts you are then able to choose whether these thoughts support you or not, and you can choose kind, peaceful thoughts instead of destructive ones. Our lives are so fast paced, it is easy to forget the simple things that nourish us and bring us peace, time with loved ones, time alone to just be and time in nature.
