Peace Of Mind (article)

People would be glad to have some peace of mind in their lives. They would be happy to
forget their troubles, problems and worries, and enjoy a few moments of inner calmness
and freedom from obsessing thoughts.

What is peace of mind?

It is a state of inner calmness and freedom, when thoughts and worries end, and there is
no stress, strain or fear. This is not a rare occurrence. Such a state is experienced, while
one is engaged in some kind of an absorbing activity, such as when watching an
interesting movie, meeting with friends, going to the beach, reading a book or while
engaging in other similar activities.
Such activities take away the mind from its usual thoughts and worries, and bring some
temporary inner peace.

While deeply asleep, you are not aware of your thoughts, and so you enjoy peace of
mind. Though it might seem strange to you, but deep sleep is a state of inner peace. When
waking up from such a sleep, you usually remember having a peaceful sleep.

While being on a vacation, don't you experience some sort of mental numbness after
some time?
The mind becomes calmer, with fewer thoughts and fewer worries.

Peace of mind is not so rare. The question is how to bring more of it into one's life, and
more importantly, how to stay peaceful in times of trouble.
You might also ask whether it is possible to make peace of mind a habit, and enjoy it
always and under all circumstances.
First you need to learn to bring more moments of inner peace into your daily life, and
later you will be able to experience it in times of trouble too, when you most need it.

If you take this subject seriously, peace of mind might even become a natural habit, but
for that, special inner training is required.

Some Suggestions
Stay away from negative conversations and from negative people.

Don’t hold a grudge. Learn to forget and forgive. Nurturing ill feelings and grievances
hurt you and cause lack of sleep.

Don't be jealous of others. Being jealous means that you have low self-esteem and
consider yourself inferior to others. This again, causes lack of inner peace.

Accept what cannot be changed. This saves a lot of time, energy and worries.

Every day we face numerous inconveniences, irritations and situations that are beyond
our control. If we can change them, that's fine, but this is not always possible. We must
learn to put up with such things and accept them cheerfully.

Learn to be more patient and tolerant with people and events.

Don't take everything too personally. Some emotional and mental detachment is
desirable. Try to view your life and other people with a little detachment and less
involvement.
Detachment is not indifference, lack of interest or coldness.
It is the ability to think and judge impartially and logically. Don't worry if again and
again you fail to manifest detachment. Just keep trying.

Let bygones be gone. Forget the past and concentrate on the present moment. There is no
need to bring to mind unpleasant memories and dip you in them.

Don’t expect from others. If we are dependent on others behaving in a certain way we
will never have inner peace. Our inner peace should come from within. Inner peace
doesn’t have to wait for outer circumstances to become favourable.

If we take life and ourselves too seriously we will never be at peace. The world has
crowded imperfections, but if we can learn to look at the humorous side of situations then
we will not feel an overwhelming sense of gloom.

When we smile at our problems they lose a lot of their power.

Give to others. If we live only to please our own self and ego we will never have inner
peace. When we give importance to our ego we worry about what other people may think
and say. When we serve others we not giving importance to our ego, we are becoming
aware of our extended reality. When we expand our consciousness we are not affected by
the concerns of the ego.

Don’t allow negative emotions to take hold. If others act or say things, which are unkind,
we do not need to pay them any attention. When we learn to have a forgiving attitude we
will have peace. If we are constantly judgemental of the actions and opinions of others
we won’t be able to experience inner peace.

Value peace more than anything else. What we give our attention to will generate a
certain force. If we feel inner peace is the most important thing then we will make it
become a reality. If we want inner peace we will not allow anger and frustration to rob us
of our calmness.