25 Ways to Bring More Peace Into Your Life

by Marelisa

Peace comes from within.

I did a Google search on the term “inner peace”, and I found a passage which identifies the 12 symptoms of inner peace (the passage is attributed to Saskia Davis). These are the symptoms of inner peace:

A tendency to think and act deliberately, rather than from fears based on past experiences.
An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
A loss of interest in judging others.
A loss of interest in judging self.
A loss of interest in conflict.
A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
A loss of the ability to worry.
Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
Frequent bouts of smiling.
An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others, as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.
An increasing tendency to allow things to unfold, rather than resisting and manipulating.

Those symptoms sound fantastic to me, so I decided to investigate further in order to discover how I could catch “inner peace”–which apparently is incurable once you’ve caught it, and you spend the rest of your life infecting others with it. The following is the list that I came up with of 25 ways to bring more peace into your life.

1. Sit in meditation each day.

2. Read something inspirational each morning, even it’s just a short quote or passage from an uplifting book.

3, Stop taking things personally. What others say and do is about them, it’s not about you.

4. Spend time in nature.

5. Find reasons to praise others instead of criticizing them.

6. Keep the following quote by Eleanor Roosevelt in mind: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

7. Pause often and be aware of how your life is made easier by others: the farmer who grew your food, the waiter who brings you water, the dentist who looks after your teeth, the garbage collector who picks up your trash, and so on. Think of how awful your life would be without these people.

8. Read good news. Here are two places that publish good news: Good News and Good News Network.

9. Know that everyone is doing the best that they can. Socrates taught that there is no evil in the world; there’s only ignorance. People act in the only way that they know how, based on their life experience and what others have taught them. If they knew how to act in a better, kinder, more loving way, they would.

10. Shift your perspective from thinking that things happen to you, to thinking that things happen for you. Everything contains a hidden gift, a not-so-obvious opportunity, or an important life lesson.

11. Transform your desire to get, into a desire to give. Instead of asking how you can get more money, ask yourself how you can give more value. Instead of wondering how many ebooks you can sell, wonder how you can share your knowledge with as many people as possible. As Michael Jeffreys indicates, giving opens the heart, while wanting closes it.

12. Train yourself to look for the beauty and goodness in your surroundings.

13. Listen to good music, read good books, and admire beautiful works of art.

14. Make a conscious effort to radiate an energy of serenity and peace.

15. Remember that just as the wave can’t separate itself from the ocean, we can’t separate ourselves from one another. We are all part of the same whole. Your right hand would never consent to hurting your left hand, so why would you consent to hurting another?

16. Continuously ask yourself. “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be happy?”

17. Stop identifying with your ego, and begin to identify with your soul.

18. Even if all evidence appears to the contrary, see the potential for a new world being born all around you.

19. Be kind to yourself.

20. Be kind and courteous to others.

21. Replace the belief “more is better”, with the belief “I have everything that I need”.

22. Before responding to a perceived slight from another, take a moment to smile and breathe.

23. Let go of the thought of competition. Instead of competing for what you want, create it.

24. Make the following your favorite time management tip: being unhappy, looking for someone to blame when things go wrong, and constantly retelling stories of victim-hood is a waste of time.

25. Count blessings instead of counting grievances and resentments.

Conclusion

I’m going to close this post with a quote from the Dalai Lama on how to achieve world peace:

“We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don’t make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace.”

Live your best life by bringing more peace into your life.