Inner peace is the most valuable thing that we can cultivate. Nobody can give us inner peace, at the same time it is only our own thoughts that can rob us of our inner peace. To experience inner peace we don’t have to retreat to a Himalayan cave; we can experience inner peace right now, exactly where we are. The most important criteria is to value the importance of inner peace. If we really value inner peace, we will work hard to make it a reality.
These are some suggestions for bringing more peace into your mind.
1. Choose carefully where we spend time.
If you are a news addict and spend an hour reading newspapers everyday, our mind will be agitated by the relentless negativity we see in the world. It is true, that we can try to detach from this negativity. But, in practise ,we will make our progress easier if we don’t spend several hours ruminating over the problems of the world. If you have a spare 15 minutes, don’t just automatically switch on the TV or surf the internet. Take the opportunity to be still or at least do something positive. The problem is the mind feels insecure unless it has something to occupy it. However, when we really can attain a clear mind we discover it creates a genuine sense of happiness and inner peace.
2. Control of Thoughts.
It is our thoughts that determine our state of mind. If we constantly cherish negative and destructive thoughts, inner peace will always remain a far cry. At all costs, we need to avoid pursuing trains of negative thoughts. This requires practise. – We cannot attain mastery of our thoughts over night. But, at the same time we always have to remember that we are able to decide which thoughts to follow and which to reject. Never feel you are a helpless victim to your thoughts.
“If you have inner peace,
nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.”
– Sri Chinmoy [2]
3. Simplify Your Life
Modern life, places great demands on our time. We can feel that we never have enough time to fulfill all our tasks. However, we should seek to minimise these outer demands. Take time to simplify your life; there are many things that we can do without, quite often we add unnecessary responsibilities to our schedule. Do the most significant tasks, one at a time, and enjoy doing them. To experience inner peace, it is essential to avoid cluttering our life with unnecessary activities and worries.
See: Benefits of simplicity
4. Spend time to cultivate inner peace.
Every day we spend 8 hours a day to earn money, can we not find time to spend 15 minutes to cultivate inner peace? No matter how much money we earn, it cannot bring us inner peace, but, if we spend 15 minutes on meditation and relaxation techniques inner peace can become a possibility. Meditation does not just mean sitting still for 30 minutes; in meditation we seek to experience a state of consciousness which is flooded with inner peace. To experience this inner peace we cannot allow any thought to enter into our mind. True inner peace occurs when we can transcend the world of thoughts.
“You cannot buy peace; you must know how to manufacture it within, in the stillness of your daily practises in meditation.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda [2]
5. Be immune to Flattery and Criticism
If we depend on the opinions and praise of other people, we can never have inner peace. Criticism and flattery are two sides of the same coin. They are both the judgements of others. However, we should not allow ourselves to be affected by either. When we do, we feed the ego. We should learn to have confidence in ourselves. This does not mean we will love ourselves in an egotistical way, it means we value our real self and have belief in the good qualities that are part of everyone.
6. Be Active selflessly
Inner peace does not mean that we have to live a life of a hermit. Inner peace, can be felt amidst dynamic activity. But, this action should be done with selfless motives. When we serve others we forget our sense of self, and it is when we forget our limited self that we can have inner peace.
7. Avoid Criticising Others
If we want inner peace, we should feel that our inner peace depends on the well being of others. If we are indifferent to the feelings of others, then it is impossible to have inner peace for ourselves. What we give out comes back. If you offer a peaceful attitude to others this is what we will see return.
Related Articles
References
[1] Sri Chinmoy, Poems on Inner Peace at Sri Chinmoy Poetry
[2] Inner Peace – How to be Calmly Active and actively Calm by Paramahansa Yogananda, Self Realisation Fellowship
Photo by Menaka, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
I love what you say here about forgetting the limited self… this has been such a big part of becoming more peaceful for me. Where there is no ‘little limited me’ getting in the way of the flow of life, life is infinitely more peaceful.
I’m off to explore the rest of your site now! Glad I found it.
Blessings.
Mike
🙂
A wonderful piece, much wisdom that I plan to incorporate intomy life. But I was somewhat puzzled to read “our inner peace depends on the well being of others”. I find others can be in a bad mood, have a personal agenda, despise you for no good reason, or feelbetter if they can hurt you. Not everyone of course & I agree you should wish for the well being of others in general but there is that element that you can do nothing about. So should not your inner peace depend on yourself? Maybe someone has insight on this?
Meditation activate mysteriously to give inner peace and vision to see universal reality
Some interesting advice above. I have found that in order to obtain inner peace that you have to acknowledge and ACCEPT the thoughts and feelings we have. In accepting and giving them permission to be there within us, a sort of like it is OK for me to have those thoughts and feelings seems to diminish there effects upon us. It is when we act-out the thought or feeling by projection onto others that turmoil is created both within and without ourselves. We end up stuck because of our resistance to our own thoughts and feelings.
Inner peace seems to be about accepting ourselves thoughts and feelings in totality. If we are angry about something and keep mulling it over and over we are fueling the fire within. If we think its OK and fully accepting for me to be feeling angry and we don’t project the anger it seems to disappear. Also when someone is angry at us, it is easier to stand in a place of non-judgement and understand that the person is projecting their anger rather than accepting their anger. Their anger won’t have an effect on us as we understand what is happening to them.
Most of us accept love unconditionally, never question loves right to be within us yet love is just a feeling. But when a negative emotion is experienced we fight and resist it with every cell in our body. Trying to control our thoughts so we don’t have something to react to is futile as we are bombarded with information from everywhere. Keeping our mind directed on our goals and aspirations appears to be more productive. I think this is why vision boards, written goals etc can be effective especially when DESIRE is coupled into the equation.
Most people don’t desire for themselves they actually, more strongly desire that everything around them should change in order for them to have inner peace. This is like trying to change green leaves on a tree into bright red ones. Copyright 2011 Jackie NZ.
1. If you want inner Peace then first you understand who you are ? to know these is very important in your life.
2. If you increase your physical or mental need then according to your need your mind and soul will be moving accordingly and it goes on increasing .
Thanks for the note you wrote, it´s a good help for all the people who need inner peace, even though it´s so hard to find sometimes.
I think the authentic inner peaace can be found when we love and accept ourselves and do things that fill our hearts.
Well i’ll like to say as an angry person, that forgiveness and selflessness is the best way to obtain inner peace
I feel better after reading this… This article helps a lot..
Look inside your self and all around you and think deeply once you have done this you have stepped on the road of inner peace try to help everyone around you, you will feel good about it and you might help them to help others in the world making it a brighter future bit by bit.
really it is awesome tips,i just melted when i read this and did some simultaneous practice.i really have the running thoughts in my name.my brain often rely on some names and its unstoppable,i suffered a lot because of this i did not listen to others if someone asked me a questions and i still on my own thoughts,i spoiled my work by my running thoughts i had not done the thing correctcly and it did not give me a satifaction fully why? am i suffer in any mind problems pls give me a solution for it.
Om shanti
These readings (I’ve been to several different subjects) have really made me feel better. Thank you for this wonderful place.
Love this beautiful and simple web site!
Moreover, those steps are great ways to attain, or at least, go in the direction of inner peace.
Another great way is to read books, thoughts and quotes about inner peace:
Here’s 3 that I like :
Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
Buddha
Peace begins with a smile.
Mother Teresa