My Quest for Inner Peace
Inner peace is like liberty in tranquillity — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Like many others, I have also struggled for inner peace. My quest for it included many things such as reading motivational books or listening to motivational speakers but everything I did make me realise that inner peace cannot come from external factors rather it has to come from inside, i.e, from the change of perspective.
Here are the following changes that I brought to my perspective and I feel free now.
- Support Yourself —We often unknowingly seek support from others. We want people to understand us and when this does not happen, we sink into depression. There are many people out there who will mock us for our decisions, appearance, choice of clothes, financial condition, emotional state,etc. Emotional turmoil arises when we try to please everyone or we are concerned with what people are thinking of us. Just remember that people don’t know your complete story and they are judging you for the only part that they are able to see. Only if you are confident with what you are and why you are the way you are, then only you will feel peaceful from inside.
- Let them go — Yes. Let them go. It’s good to free people who do not want to be with you or want a minimal connection with you. Its good to free such people from the shackles of your expectations because it will do more good to you than to them. Just think about it, how much you feel bad if you are emotionally stressed out and you share this story to a person whom you thought is close to you and instead of helping you that person replies, ”Oh that’s bad, hope God helps you !”. The blow received from this attitude is harsher than any hardship . It’s better to not to expect anything from anyone . This attitude will help us a lot because if someone is good to us then we will feel happy and if they are not helping us then at least it won’t add to our distress.
- It’s OKAY to be alone — Many a times we hear this that whenever you are sad you should talk to your friends/ relatives but we often forget that what about those who are alone? What about those who don’t have sincere friends/relatives? People often become judgemental of such people and generally say that there must be something bad in that person that’s why he/she is alone. We need to understand that in this deceiving and selfish world, you are lucky if you have found some good people in your life but if someone could not find any then this doesn’t mean that they are bad.
- Find the lost “YOU” — When we were kids, we had many interests but as we grew up, life happened and we left those things which made us happy and got busy with our life. If you are standing in the middle of a cyclone and finding it hard to deal with it, try picking up an old habit that interested you. Who knows, maybe picking up a brush after so many years might bring a smile on your face?
- Wait for the relief — Life never remains same for everyone. I know this is easy to say than practice but if you have a firm belief that whatever hardship you are in is just making you stronger and after every hardship relief surely arrives then you will be able to face the battles of your life easily.
“Be sure that there is something waiting for you after much patience, to astonish you to a degree that you forget the bitterness of the pain.“- Ali ibn Abi Talib
6. Count Your Blessings — No doubt that whatever situation we might be in, we are still better than someone from any part of the world who is suffering more hardships than us. Start counting 5 blessings daily. It will make you realise that it is still not bad if you still get food easily whenever you are hungry or have a roof over you to sleep in the bitter cold.
“Your current situation that you are complaining about is sometimes a dream for the one who is dealing with greater problems” — Anonymous
