Finding Inner Peace in a World of Chaos
The kids are screaming something about a missing sock, the oven is smoking, and the school bus is rolling past the house… Has your Monday morning ever looked like this?
If you can relate, now imagine a world where the whirl of commotion cannot penetrate the stillness inside of you. What would a world of inner peace look like? While we probably can’t picture a state of being where we are constantly at one with ourselves, it is possible to find a place of deeper understanding where both our shortcomings and our gifting are present.
So how do we move forward toward a place of self-acceptance and inner peace? Especially in this world where the only constant thing is the turbulence? Here we’ve compiled four steps you can make towards more patience and more peace.
Understand Your Goals
What are you really looking for? What does the Ideal You look like? What do you value? How are your daily activities lining up with your values? These are just a few of the questions we should ask ourselves throughout our journey toward peace. Each step we make toward bettering ourselves should be recorded and celebrated. Each step we make backward should be inspected, learned from, and put behind us. The more time we take for mental and spiritual self-inspection, the less time we will take questioning ourselves and doubting our core beliefs.
Be Active in Your Pursuits
The worst thing we can do is remain complacent. There is always room for improvement in our yoga practices, our careers, our families, and our thoughts. Of course, this does not mean that we should eliminate time for stillness – in fact, quite the opposite. Being active and moving forward is not the same as being busy. We can make progress internally without physically moving at all. Meditation, self-centering activities, and yoga practices are all ways we can do this.
Make Time in the Day
Each day only has 24 hours – there is nothing we can change about this. However, we do have control over how we spend those hours. Devoting more time to further live out your values will improve not only your well-being but also the well-being of those around you.
Focus on Deepening Relationships
One of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, wrote this in one of her books: “Never compare your insides to everyone else’s outsides.” I think this quote encapsulates the human experience of constant comparison to those around us, which inevitably leads to a lack of joy and peace. The more we focus on deepening our relationships and uncovering the strengths and weaknesses of our friends, the more we will discover those things within ourselves and learn not to judge what we see.
We are all works in progress – none of us will ever be completely whole during our time on this earth. This means that we must be ever focused on our goals of finding peace, remaining alert and open to change, and determined to deepen relationships. May we ever be individuals who love wholly and are continuing to learn ourselves by heart.
