Finding Your Inner Peace

You can find your inner peace by doing practical things in your everyday life.

Listen, I remember the days when my mouth would get me into so much trouble. Or I would be doing all kinds of destructive behaviors until I found more tactical ways to help me find my inner peace. In this, I realized that I could only control my actions and no matter how bad I wanted people to see me, love me, support me or just stop stressing me out, it wasn't fully up to them, it was up to me to change my ways and my thoughts. That's how you know you're "grown grown".....when you want to change something about everyone else or your environment, but instead, you began a good work on the inside of YOU!

As the preacher says, stay with me I'm going somewhere with this......

You may feel uncomfortable at times but there are practical ways to find your inner peace. Living in a chaotic world and constantly being overwhelmed on the inside is not the way towards establishing and finding your inner peace. In fact, you'll be in turmoil sooner than later if you don't get a hold on to the people and things going on in your life that disrupts your peace. To find inner peace, you are going to constantly have to do the work. It's not going to miraculously appear in your life daily.

Remove people and things that drains your energy

This goes for your personal and professional life. You will never have inner peace if you allow people in your life who don't respect you or value who are. This goes for doing things in your life that serves no purpose for you anymore, takes up so much of your time and you regret it every single time. For an example, I always think about the parent whose child has gone off to college, but yet she's still the president of the PTA at his elementary school. She's overwhelmed and she never has time for her husband, now that they are empty nesters. Why? Or if you constantly engage with people who are always complaining about something, involved in drama, etc.....it's draining so remove those type of people to find your inner peace.

Hold yourself accountable

Sometimes we are on the struggle bus of stress and chaos in our lives, because we want to blame everyone else (whom we have no control over), instead of acknowledging our wrong doing in the situation. People will walk around mad at another person for years and not ever, once, hold themselves accountable. You can't control what other people do or don't do but you most definitely can control your actions.

Use discernment to navigate you in life

Discernment, intuition or gut feeling, however you call it.....use it! When you know that something is not right or feels right, don't do it. It's in those moments where we lose our inner peace because we've done something that we know wasn't right from the start. This is where you have to understand the root of your feelings also. Ask yourself, "Why do I feel this way?" Instead of pushing those thoughts or feelings to the side, explore or deal with them so that you can have peace on the inside.

Know when to walk away

Sometimes, your silence will win the battle. You don't have to respond to everything or have the last word. BE QUIET and let the Lord fight your battle! Trust me, I've wanted to clapback on tons of people and it has taken me so much strength to just walk away from unhealthy situations or just knowing what my triggers are and tabling a conversation to keep my inner peace. This goes with getting to the root of what makes you angry, sad, happy or mad. When someone is constantly causing you turmoil by triggering you and you've asked them to stop, walk away. Distance yourself from people that do not respect your boundaries and your mental health.

Relax

Relax during stressful moments, even if it's for 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes of relaxation will save you from consequences later and will give you the inner peace that you need in that moment. Find something that you can do that completely relaxes you and refocus on your mental health. The peace of mind I have when I lay down and listen to spa music is almost indescribable. Or when I take a hot bubble bath and add peppermint oil in it soothes my mind when I get stress. Make time out of your day to simple relax.

Our jobs, social networks and our families demands so much from us that we neglect the inner peace that we need to declutter the world around us. To find your inner peace, remove people and things that no longer serve you, explore your thoughts and feelings, learn when it's time to just walk away, pay attention to what triggers you and finally, when it's above your capacity to deal with life's problem or before it gets there preferably, RELAX!