5 Ways to Live Peacefully With Yourself!
‘Live in peace or go to pieces’, was a sentence shouted by a husband to his wife who were quarrelling about some silly marital issues and I happened to hear them as they were my neighbours. Just imagine a small issue was being trivialized and blown out of proportion when the wife’s cousin saw the husband flirting with an office colleague outside their corporate office building. She called her up immediately to complain about him and brought the house down. Even after so many years of marriage, the wife had not come to terms with her husband’s harmless behaviour. C’mon! We are living in the 21st century and relationship dynamics, especially at the workplace, have changed since the lockdown during the pandemic phase and this was no issue to quarrel about at all. Anyways I just turned a deaf ear and heard about it from another neighbour, rather a rumourmonger, who said that the husband was an incurable flirt and enjoyed some great conversations with the opposite sex, but on the flip side of the story, he was good man, a caring husband and a father.
The word ‘peace’ is a myth and cannot be found anywhere except in dictionaries around the world, unless we humans don’t find it within ourselves we will never be able to find it anywhere on this planet. According to the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the word peace means a period of no war or violence and another definition of peace says, freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions. We, humans, tend to overthink and over imagine a lot of things, there is constant war and violence that goes on in our fertile minds, that we lose sleep and appetite over petty issues. In the above-mentioned incident was it essential to pull up the husband for his harmless flirtatious behaviour? Maybe she is an overtly suspicious wife, I suppose.
These two inner peace quotes are not only valuable but very close to my heart and I often repeat them in my mind when I am feeling stressed or mentally disturbed, they are, “Do not let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace” and the second one is ‘Nobody can bring you peace but yourself’. How well these two quotes resonate with every human being on this planet. People who really don’t care about others' opinions are truly blessed and the happiest.
Anyways, without losing my peace of mind here are five valuable ways that can help you live peacefully with yourself even if the world around you is going through a tsunami.
Meditation:
Not a very old but not a very new success mantra either, meditation is an ancient technique to keep the mind peaceful and has been in practice for the last few decades. Mind healing experts prescribe meditation to achieve a certain level of calmness and clarity in a chaotic world. When practised regularly and diligently meditation helps to overcome mental and emotional wounds that we have suffered in the past. It helps to heal and overcome past rejections and tragedies that have overwhelmed us for many years.
Yoga and Physical Activity
Alignment of the mind and the body is what best describes yoga. Regular practice of yoga helps to bring down stress levels and achieve a certain level of mental stability and dexterity, that we refuse to cower under pressure and stress which makes us lose our peace of mind. Another way to achieve peace is to engage in physical activity like brisk walking, running, and going to the gym which helps to pump adrenaline into our bloodstream, thereby reducing stress and tension. This helps to achieve the peace which we normally crave for.
Diet
Nutritious food plays a vital role in our physical and mental well-being. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables will cure 80% of the damage that we do to our bodies and the rest 20% lies in choosing to eat foods that are not procured through violence and damage done to other forms of life that exist on this planet. A diet that is free from processed, fried, canned, packaged and refined foods are healthier and acceptable to nature and man’s natural environment. More and more people in this world are moving towards vegetarianism and this has helped them to become calmer and more peaceful individuals.
Acceptance
The more we forgive and the more we learn to accept who we are, the more we will be able to live peacefully with ourselves. If we are in constant conflict with ourselves and the environment around us the more damage it will cause to our mental health and overall peace of mind. Introspection and reflecting on all that has happened in our past no matter how disturbing or traumatic it has been and giving ourselves the chance to ‘let go’ will release all the conflict, hate, anger and frustration that we have been carrying with us and give us lasting peace and acceptance of who we are.
Defining Self-Worth
Many people go around bashing themselves up for their own failures and mistakes that they had committed when they were young. They regret having failed at academics, jobs and even their own personal relationships. This extremely damaging behaviour can leave deep emotional scars on our personalities. How can this be overcome? Well, in the first place it will take time and secondly, you have to give yourself enough head space to let go of what has happened and move towards building something that will make you valuable and worthy of your own self. It’s certainly worth it!
In a world full of chaos, political upheavals and crisis, unrest, natural calamities and tragedies, all we can do ourselves a big favour by living peacefully with ourselves. Surround ourselves with a lot of positivity and do our good by contributing to society and helping people in any way we can. This will ensure that we carry our peace within ourselves wherever we go.
