4 Simple Ways to Find Inner Peace (Natasha)

If you struggle to find inner peace, it’s important to commit to take care of your mental health. I know I have this problem every single day. Taking care of your mental health can make it easier to think clearly, be calmer, stay focused on what you’re doing, and be grateful for your life. Consider incorporating one of more of these activities into your days for peace of mind. 

Focus on Self-Care

When you can’t find a reason to be happy, you might want to ask yourself why. But if you can’t figure out what the problem might be, then focusing on self-care is probably the best thing you can do for yourself. In fact, some benefits of self-care include enhanced sleep quality, improved relationships, and better focus, among others. A few self-care tips you might enjoy are eating healthy snacks, getting organized, listening to calming nature sounds or classical music, doing household chores, lighting a candle, reading a book, baking, and many more.

I do all of these activities and can’t say enough about how much they help me stay calm all day. I commit to take care of myself and truly wonderful things happen. I can enjoy the moment more, forget about bullies, and have less anxiety and depression. Furthermore, caring about yourself makes it easier to care about others. Caring about others can give you the inspiration you need to be positive and have a more successful future. 

Be Yourself

Consequently, not being yourself might make you anxious, depressed, or just plain angry. Instead of allowing negativity to ruin your day, you might want to try being yourself more often. Indeed, everyone’s a unique individual and we deserve to express ourselves in healthy ways. And if someone doesn’t like you for who you are, you don’t have to pay attention to them. There are several things you can do to be yourself. For instance, you can do creative activities such as painting, drawing, playing a musical instrument, cooking, woodworking, or creative writing.

I personally do creative writing, play the guitar, draw cartoon characters, and create colored pencil art in my free time. Doing art is my favorite way to deal with any negativity I face including abuse, negative thoughts, and depression. Further, it’s vital to be open to change, stop letting the opinions of others affect you, notice your strengths, and escape your comfort zone. I notice when I’m not open enough to change, this affects my health and well-being in the worst way. Plus, I try my best to get out of my comfort zone, even when I’m at home. I do this by learning new things on the internet, doing hobbies I’ve never done before, or volunteering online. 

Have Empathy

I’ve learned that one of life’s biggest challenges is having empathy and being unselfish. But when I lower my ego and be grateful, I feel better about the world around me and those in it. My life becomes more meaningful and I have more hope than I’ve ever had for a brighter future. Understanding and experiencing the benefits of gaining empathy can be rewarding and purposeful to anyone. Having empathy can help you build social connections, experience personal growth, and boost creativity. While it can be a challenge to have empathy towards others since no one’s perfect, there are things you can do to improve your mindset. For example, you can do good deeds such as planting a tree, donate a can of food to a homeless shelter, or volunteer for an hour at an organization you admire. But if you’d like to take volunteering further, you can serve meals to homeless people at a soup kitchen, visit elderly people at nursing homes, or help out at an animal shelter. If you’d rather do something from the comfort of your home, you can read to children for virtual story hours, become a crisis counselor volunteer, or send cards to children with cancer, among others.

I’ve volunteered from home and away from home and I can tell you that almost nothing could be more meaningful. It’s been completely worth the effort for me, even when things didn’t always go the way I expected. While your actions may seem small at times, no matter what you do, you’ll likely encourage another person in need to understand that people care in this world. Whether you believe so or not, your efforts to care about others will matter a lot to someone. 

Appreciate Nature

Almost nothing could be as refreshing for me as getting some fresh air and sunshine. Almost every morning, I go outside to do some stretches or yoga. When I do this, I feel such inner peace that I can’t even describe my feelings in words. You can make it through whatever you face by taking care of yourself and committing to positivity. I know this works for me and plenty of others. Since spending time outdoors can be a bit dull for some people, it can be important to be more grateful for nature. One way to make outdoor time exciting can be to get active somehow. Moving around can give you a way to elevate your mood and calm your mind. You can distract yourself from anxiety, stress, or depression by playing an outdoor game, swimming or playing basketball, working out, teaching a pet some tricks, or doing something else you enjoy. On the other hand, you might rather do something that requires less energy like reading a book on an outdoor chair or hammock, taking your dog for a walk, watching the sunrise or sunset, doing meditation or yoga, or sketching objects you find in nature. 

In Summary:

Although finding inner peace can be a huge struggle for anyone, myself included, making an honest effort each day to keep a positive mindset can be a great idea. After all, your life is worth every effort it takes to be happier and healthier. Therefore, try telling yourself each day that you deserve to care more about yourself. Letters Against Depression provides people with hope and support through letters. You can sign up to receive letters or volunteer to send someone who needs your help as many letters as you’d like. If this sounds like something you’d like to try, you can find more information by heading to lettersagainst.org.

Natasha