Practices for inner peace are a sign of self-love and self-worth. You garner practices for inner peace for your well-being, your heart and soul – to make your journey on this planet easier and more pleasant. Because let’s face it, the road is not always lined with roses.  Goals will sometimes seem out of reach. Roadblocks and land mines will pop up out of nowhere. Loss will happen. People will do hurtful things to you – even sometimes those you love and trust.  This is life – as easy or hard to accept as it is sometimes.

There are going to be stark contrasts, and I so hope this blog is a good and useful resource for practices that work for you to alleviate some of the suffering. The brilliant thing about inner peace practices is they also make you more resilient. Yes, there are going to be set backs and disappointments. But, when we can bounce back faster and get back in the game with joy and enthusiasm quickly, we become the masters of our own fate.

So here are two practices for inner peace that I think you will find valuable:

I.) Stop Looking for Validation Outside Yourself

As I begin to write this section, the thing that comes to mind is dating.  When I was dating, I did it full-out. In other words, I did a lot — A Lot — of it, lol, but truly – we’re not talking a little. I dated a lot because I really wanted to find someone to love  – someone with which to share my life.  I did it with intention and purpose. But, at the same time, I realized I didn’t need another person to complete me. I am already complete. We are whole. No person, no thing, no accomplishment can make us more than we already are. We are the self-experiencing of the infinite, and it flat out doesn’t get any grander than that.

So, sticking with the dating example, what does a person who is dating and not looking for validation from the outside look like? You are not controlling. You don’t set time limits in your head as to when someone should call back or how they should follow up. You don’t set mental hurdles for them to jump over to prove you are love-worthy or that they are. You let the relationship breathe and morph as it will organically. You move slowly with grace and let the players show themselves and fall by the wayside. You let the gold nuggets sift to the top naturally. You are patient and have faith in the wisdom of the universe.

How do you know when you are looking for validation from the outside? You know when you are emotionally hurt. The higher self of which you are cannot be hurt, cannot be shaken or moved – like a mountain cannot be moved by the horns of a little Billy Goat. But the ego can be hurt. It can get bruised and battered. And, it can fill your life with drama and suffering.

So here is the practice. When you notice you are hurt emotionally, remind yourself – this is the ego – the ego somehow got into the driver’s seat. It has perceived wrongly. It perceives a lack of love or a lack of respect. But know that you are love incarnate. You are a unique and loving gift to the world – a magnificent idea that the infinite made manifest through a human nervous system.  Breathe in that truth. Use your breathe work – long controlled breaths to center yourself in this truth. And flat out, don’t let the actions of others define you.

II.) Entrain with Transience

The second practice is to entrain with transience. The whole of consciousness is in constant flux. Although you, at your core, are the never-changing backdrop of pure awareness — peaceful and immutable, the consciousness side is ever changing.  Making friends with this aspect of your reality can cultivate higher and higher levels of peace. Look at the whole of your reality on the level of consciousness. Your cells are always turning over, some dying, some are being newly propagated. Finances will flux, come and go. Seasons will change. People will come in and out of the picture. Even at the tiniest level — the words of the DJ on the radio are here for one microsecond at a time then they’re gone. Your thoughts and emotions are, of course, transient too. And, the best practice for ongoing peace is to remind ourselves, as the tougher emotions move through our experience, that yes this emotion too will pass. We can flow or entrain with change. No doubt, sure things would be dandier than catching a Met’s pop fly – we’d all love that. But, the sooner and more we stop grasping and clinging and looking to attach ourselves to something permanent, the sooner we reap real sustainable peace.

So the practice is as with most inner peace practices. It starts with awareness. How do you feel? If you are feeling low, sad, put out, etc. – notice it, become aware. Then investigate. “What am I trying to attach to or hold on to?” And, then remind yourself to entrain. Remind yourself that every aspect of consciousness is about ever-changing activity, motion, flux. Breathe. Flow. Entrain with what is right now.

P.S. If you’d love to have a whole arsenal of inner peace practices, be sure to check out my brand-new Inner Peace Mastery course. It’s super comprehensive and I think you’ll dig it…

Blessings,

Sandra M Bell