Do you ever feel the world is trying to mess with your zen? What if I told you there’s a way to keep your peace intact, even when life throws curveballs?
With so many competing priorities and demands in our lives, the pursuit of inner peace can often feel like an uphill battle, which is why it’s so important to reclaim control.
When I think back on how often I’ve allowed people and situations to disrupt my inner peace, I’m forced to acknowledge how easily I used to give my power away without even realizing it.
But knowledge is power, and it’s in realizing areas where we are lacking that we can begin to make healthier decisions.
In this article, we’ll explore what it means to protect your peace as a form of self-care, why you should, and provide some ways to help you take action toward protecting your peace daily.
Let’s get started.
What It Means to Protect Your Peace
Protecting your peace means safeguarding your mental and emotional state of mind from toxic influences that can cause harm in the form of manipulation, stress, anxiety, burnout, or pose a threat to your overall sense of joy and inner tranquility.
Imagine you’re bombarded with work emails after office hours. Set clear boundaries by turning off email notifications during downtime to protect your peace. This simple action empowers you to enjoy periods of relaxation free of work-related pressures.
While living in a constant state of peace might not be practical, as life will happen and present its share of challenges, it’s essential to maintain control over yourself and choose wisely when determining what you’ll give your energy to.
Benefits of Protecting Your Peace
When you take the time to reflect on what peace means for you in your life and on what it would take to achieve, you start to develop a more meaningful relationship with yourself and how you respond to life’s circumstances.
As a result, the following benefits can be gained by making a conscious effort to protect your peace:
- the ability to show greater compassion for others
- decreased stress levels
- the ability to maintain an even-tempered response to negativity
- better able to manage your emotions
- improved quality of sleep
13 Daily Habits to Protect Your Peace
Maintaining inner peace is essential to remaining emotionally balanced and in a safe space internally where you feel like your best self.
From this place, you can escape the world’s chaos and create a life that contributes more positively to your mental health and well-being.
The following is a list of ways to protect your peace.
Prioritize Self-Care
Too often, we neglect our needs to prioritize the needs of others. Failing to make time for yourself can eventually lead to resentment, burnout, and feeling overwhelmed. Be intentional about carving out time for self-care, whether establishing a relaxing morning routine, going for a daily walk, getting rest when needed, or planning a weekly lunch date with a friend.
Be Quick to Forgive
Release the need to hold a grudge when someone falls short of your expectations for them. None of us are perfect, and while some grievances will be harder to get past, forgiveness is more for you than for the other person. Maintaining inner peace is difficult when you’re intent on feeding negativity. While some people are only meant to be in your life for a season, be okay with letting them go with grace.
Practice Gratitude
Research shows that expressing gratitude benefits mental and physical well-being, as it can contribute to decreased depression, anxiety, and difficulties associated with chronic pain and the risk of disease. Protect your peace by finding ways to show gratitude daily. Doing so can help you better manage adversity, appreciate good experiences, and maintain positive emotions.
Prioritize Time Alone
Whether it be a physical space you have designated or taking time away from your daily responsibilities to be alone with your thoughts, it’s vital to prioritize alone time. Time alone can help spark your creativity, increase productivity, and allow you the space to reflect on thoughts and feelings related to what’s currently taking place in your life and relationships.
Reduce the Impulse to Worry
Excessive worrying can prevent you from living a healthy and content life. Find ways to stay present as often as possible, focusing less on what might go “wrong” in the future and appreciating what’s going “right.”
Release the Need to Control
It’s human nature to feel the need to control what goes on around us. But if you take a step back and process the big picture, the reality is that there is very little you have control over. No matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise. Be at peace knowing that you can only do the best you can with what’s within your power to control, and have faith that everything else will play out the way it is supposed to.
Do What Makes You Happy
So much of our lives are spent doing things out of a sense of obligation or based on the expectations of others. Protect your peace by prioritizing and pursuing the things that genuinely make you happy. Regularly engaging in things that bring you joy can reenergize you, helping you navigate the responsibilities and challenges of everyday life with less stress and anxiety.
Avoid Situations That Make You Uncomfortable
There are times when it will be unavoidable. But as often as possible, stay away from people and environments that make you uncomfortable. Stay in tune with your intuition, and be aware of when it’s signaling that something isn’t right so you can steer clear of situations that threaten to disrupt your sense of inner peace.
Be Respectful of Yourself and Others
Show respect for yourself and those around you to avoid situations that can bring conflict into your life. Whether related to your physical space or your values and beliefs, boundary setting and clear communication are necessary to establish and maintain respect in your relationships and ensure it is reciprocated.
Discover Your Emotional Triggers
Emotional triggers are often related to a traumatic event and can come in the form of an item, word, topic, or memory that elicits strong negative feelings for you. The things that trigger you can affect you regardless of the present circumstances and cause you distress. Protect your peace by identifying your triggers and finding healthy ways to manage them.
Don’t Be Crimpled by Fear
Much like stress and anxiety, fear will rob you of your sense of inner peace by infiltrating your mind and planting seeds of negativity and self-doubt. Do your best to control any tendency you have to be fearful of life’s outcomes. Instead, shift your mindset to have faith and believe that no matter what happens, it will work out for your good at the end of the day, even if it doesn’t feel that way.
Practice Positive Thinking
Research has found significant benefits to positive thinking, as it can help with stress management and improve your overall health. While positive thinking doesn’t mean ignoring life’s challenges, it requires you to approach how you handle them more productively by assuming the best possible outcome, not the worst.
Give Yourself Grace
We’re often our worst critics and treat others more kindly than we do ourselves. Release the need to be over-critical of yourself and accept that none of us are perfect. We all fall short. It’s what you learn and how you apply it in the future that builds your character. Allow yourself permission to forgive past mistakes, damaging behaviors, and lapses in judgment. Give yourself credit for your positive contributions, whether big, small, or imperfect.
Final Thoughts
It’s typically only when you can sit in silence and reflect on everything that goes on around you daily that you fully realize how loud and distracting your world can be.
While trying to keep up in our fast-paced society, finding ways to maintain your sense of calm requires intentionality.
Putting these ideas into action can support you in protecting your peace, which is a priceless commodity that should never be taken for granted.
