Experiencing Inner Peace

“No-one can create negativity or stress within you.

Only you can do that by virtue of how you process your world”

- Dr Wayne Dyer 

‘Inner peace’, isn’t that something that we’d all love to experience consistently as we weave our paths through everything life throws at us?

The good news is it’s far simpler to attain inner peace than many of our outer goals, such as our physical and material goals. The bad news is that simple isn’t always easy!

Attaining inner peace isn’t easy because it requires us to replace old habits with new ones, and that requires dedicated commitment.

But the benefits are absolutely worth the effort.

Inner peace gives us the ability to live our lives with a sense of happiness, satisfaction and fulfilment which is not affected by outside events.

So, how do we acquire inner peace?

We can achieve inner peace through many ways, including:

• By living our lives in our own way, and not how others think we should.
• By not worrying about what others think of us.

If we try to live our lives in ways that other people want us to and which honours their values rather than our own, we’ll never truly be at peace deep inside.

This is why it’s important for us to identify our highest values, and then live our life as best as we can in accordance with those values. Our highest values are the things that are truly important to us.

To experience inner peace, we also need to let go of any feelings of guilt or shame and be able to forgive other people and ourselves. Feeling guilty about something that you’ve done in the past won’t change what happened and won’t make anybody feel better or improve the situation. If you’ve hurt someone, whether intentionally or unintentionally, do what you can to put things right, resolve to do better in the future and move on.

Similarly, letting go of anger or grudges you have towards other people or past situations will bring about a surprising sense of peace.

If you’re struggling to let go of anger or grudges, think about this – how does holding onto these negative emotions help you? Do you think they hurt the people you’re holding the grudge against more than they hurt you? Not at all. They’re your emotions and you’re the only person they can harm.

Of course, that can often be easier said than done, and it can sometimes be very difficult to forgive someone who’s hurt you, especially if it’s in relation to something that you really care about. But what I’ve come to realise is that most people don’t maliciously set out to hurt others, and those who do are normally deeply unhappy themselves. The motivation behind their action was most probably some kind of fear or anger they have, rather than deliberately wanting to cause hurt or pain to you. If you can think of their actions or words in that context, it can often be easier to let any feelings of anger, or any grudges, go.

With a little bit of practice at forgiveness, you may even find yourself getting less annoyed or angry with people in future. When you can start to realise that what people say or do is more about them than you, and not take things personally, you’ll develop and maintain a greater sense of inner peace.

Our happiness is determined by how we think about the events in our lives, rather than by the events themselves. Take charge of your thoughts and you take charge of your emotions.

To achieve inner peace, we also need to let go of worry.

Worrying about what might or might not happen is completely unproductive, and totally destroys our ability to enjoy the present moment, which is a great shame, as the present moment is all that we really have.

So, how can you learn to let go of worries, guilt and anger? Well, the first thing is to become consciously aware of what you’re thinking whenever you feel worried, guilty or angry. Pay attention to your inner dialogue, and acknowledge that it’s your thoughts about the external event that’s causing you to feel the way you do, and not the event itself. Then reframe your thoughts to reflect what’s going on around you in a more positive light.

Whenever you catch yourself thinking an old negative thought, banish it immediately and replace it with a new, more positive and empowering thought.

This will take a lot of practice, but with patience and persistence you will develop a lighter, more positive and empowering, inner dialogue that promotes a feeling of wellbeing and inner peace. Suddenly the world will feel like a much better place to live in!