The mind is like an ocean. For most people, the mind is constantly moving, just like water, without ever coming to a rest. It is stirred up by our restless and rushing thoughts, just like waves on the shore. Our desires and fears do not only disturb us, but they also prohibit us from finding peace of mind. Just like the wind, our thoughts and anxieties can lead to a stormy ocean, without allowing us to rest. The mind, however, in itself is neutral, just like water. If you are able to reduce the influence of your thoughts on your mind, you will create a calm sea. The following will show you the most powerful ways to find peace of mind—a mental state so calm and peaceful just like the water at the deepest ground of the ocean.
Our mental calmness depends highly on our ability to calm our thoughts. You won’t be able to calm the ocean by grasping the water in the hope that it won’t move. It simply does not work. Instead, it is necessary to address the root of the problem, which is the wind, or in our case our fears, desires, and thoughts. You will have to stop the impact of the wind on the ocean if you want a calm sea. We need to learn to control these emotions and thoughts so that our mental state is unaffected by it. For this to work properly we need to control and strengthen our attention.
What Is the Mental State Called Peace of Mind?
In general, the term ‘a peaceful mind’ is used to describe a mental state in which mental and emotional calmness prevail. It is a state where your mind is not stirred up by anxieties and worries. The mental activity is phased down so that quietness and calmness can be experienced. Instead of being troubled by the past or future your point of focus lies at this present moment, you’re living in the now.
We all have experienced this fantastic mental state, for instance during a vacation or while being deeply absorbed by an amazing book. During this state, we were not troubled by our worries and thoughts. Instead, our mind was calm—we had found inner peace.
The minute you stop overwhelming your mind with caring about what everyone else thinks, and start doing what you feel in your heart is right, is the minute you will finally feel freedom and peace of mind.
Melchor Lim
But how can we calm the ocean to invite mental calmness and peace of mind into our life? Even more importantly, how can we maintain a peaceful mind even in stressful and hectic situations or during times of great despair and difficulties?
How to Find Peace of Mind?
The following will present you the most effective and powerful ways to establish peace of mind. Some of it might be unconventional, but if you keep an open mind about it, your mental calmness will benefit greatly from it.
1. Meditation
If you want to create the proper foundation to establish long-lasting peace of mind, then there’s no way around meditation. In fact, if someone were to ask me, “What is the most powerful way to create peace of mind?” I would recommend meditation without the shadow of a doubt. It is simply the most effective thing you can do.
With meditation, I mean in this context not a spiritual practice, but only a mindfulness practice so as to calm your mental activity down.
According to neuroscientists, the continued practice of meditation can effect beneficial changes in the physical structure of your brain. This re-shaping of the brain’s structure helps to activate the part of the nervous system that is responsible for rest, allowing us to better cope with stress. Furthermore, meditation reduces stress and strengthens your ability to sustain attention. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School also found that meditation can dramatically reduce anxiety. The study highlighted that 90% of the participants, who all suffered from clinical levels of anxiety, experienced significant reductions in their anxiety levels.
But how can you make use of meditation to find inner peace and harmony? All you need is 15-30 minutes a day for the following mindfulness meditation:
- Sit with eyes closed, either on a cushion or a chair
- Make sure your back is straight
- Focus your attention on your breathing
- Be aware of the breath as it goes in and out
- Redirect your focus back if your mind starts wandering
You can start with a relatively short period of only 10 minutes or so per day. Doing so will help you to get adjusted to this new exercise. You’ll also notice that after some time of regular practice it will become a lot easier for you to focus on your breathing activity.
2. Eliminate certain media distractions
Media consumption can cause great turbulence within our mind. These media distractions range from television, radio, newspapers and magazines to video games and music. They all have in common that certain types within these media categories can heavily affect your mental state in a negative way.
Take for instance an action thriller that you’re watching shortly before going to bed. You will notice that your mind is completely restless after the film has ended. It will spontaneously pick up random thoughts or ponder about the plot of the movie. There’s absolutely no peace of mind to be gained from watching such a movie. Watching television has also been linked to feelings of loneliness and depression by researchers from the University of Texas.
If you’re really serious about establishing inner harmony it’s important to avoid certain media distractions at any costs:
- Avoid certain types of movies, i.e. horror, thriller, etc.
- Reduce television time, or stop watching TV entirely, for the greatest benefits
- Avoid the news on TV or in the newspaper, 90% of it is negative anyways
- Stay away from aggressive music
- Stop playing video games
As we are already on the subject, the following should also be avoided:
- Avoid being dragged into heavily emotional discussions about recent political and societal developments. Discussing it will not solve the problem, but it will heavily affect your ability to find peace of mind
- Stay away from negative people and negative conversations
- Learn to accept the things that cannot be changed. Worrying about it or even getting upset about it will do nothing to solve the issue, but it will waste your precious time and energy.
The above-mentioned tactics to maintain inner harmony are only recommendations. If you are willing to avoid these distractions your mental state will greatly benefit from it.
3. Learn to forgive
Far too often we hold grudges. This emotional baggage accumulates over time and becomes a heavy burden that we carry on our shoulders wherever we go.
It is important to realize that we cannot make the things that happened undone. Holding on to your anger will only burn you from the inside, not to mention the fact that it will prohibit you from ever finding peace of mind. For this reason, it is so important to learn to forgive another.
Forgiveness is crucial to maintaining inner harmony. It will help you to let go of anger and inner turmoil. Being able to forgive will help you to let go of the pain. Plus, scientists have shown that forgiveness facilitates forgetting, an important skill when you want to establish inner harmony.
4. Let go of the past
The past haunts every one of us from time to time. Thinking about everything that happened and the mistakes you’ve made in the past over and over again will cause great turmoil within your mind. For this very reason, it is so important not to dwell on the past. You cannot change the past. However, you always have the chance to change your situation in this present moment.
Let bygones be gone. Learn to avoid the evocation of heavily emotional and unpleasant memories of the past. Try to focus your attention on the present situation.
5. Cultivate patience and tolerance
Many times daily we encounter people who do things that we do not approve of. In almost all cases we get so fed up with their behavior that it causes a great and angry storm within our mind.
Learn to be patient and tolerant of these people. As long as they don’t hurt anybody else it shouldn’t affect your mental well-being. Don’t allow these clowns to get more attention than they deserve. Most likely you won’t be able to change them anyways, so why allow them to disrupt your peace of mind.
6. Cultivate a certain level of detachment
A certain degree of mental and emotional detachment can be of the greatest importance when it comes to establishing inner peace and harmony.
You’ll notice that there are so many people who get easily offended even by the slightest stimuli. They start complaining about the most ridiculous things, write angry letters or let off steam on Internet forums. Don’t be one of them. Learn the important skill of not being offended by everything and everyone.
A great level of inner calmness can be attained by detaching yourself from things that are simply not worth your attention.
7. Take a walk
Go out in nature and take a walk through your nearest park. The sensation of walking through nature will not only ground you, but it will also help you to calm your mind down. Taking a walk is highly effective, but most people sadly seem to have forgotten its benefits.
8. Volunteer your time
Helping someone else can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. Knowing that you’ve made someone’s life worth living will give you not only an incredible boost, but it will also help you to find inner harmony and peace. In fact, scientific research has shown that volunteering has a great impact on your psychological well-being and your health.
9. Don’t worry about what others are thinking
Another source for mental restlessness can be the fear of other people’s judgment. It might even haunt us so much that we do things we’d rather not do, just to please someone else. However, it is nearly impossible to be everybody’s darling. In fact, you cannot change the way people think about you. So why bothering about it?
The ability to be not affected by other people’s opinion will greatly help you to find peace of mind in daily life.
In conclusion
Shall we try to draw the quintessence from the advice given in the above? Let’s try to summarize it with a couple of sentences:
Peace of mind can be established by cultivating the skill of not being affected by your thoughts and worries. This skill can be developed for instance through mindfulness meditation, but also other activities that strengthen your ability to focus. It is also important to learn to let go of the past, to forgive others and to develop a certain degree of detachment in order to create the necessary foundation for inner harmony and balance.
I hope you’ve liked this article.
How do you find peace of mind?
Please feel free to share your tricks and tactics that help you to create peace of mind. We’re excited to hear from you and your experiences in the comment section below.
Photo credit: Danny H.
36 Comments
Great article. Very helpful list Steve. You mention some very good ways to find peace of mind. Something else that could be very helpful, is playing an instrument. Whenever I play guitar, my hands take over my mind. I just go with the flow. Not a single thought occurs in my mind at that moment.
Hey Jellis,
That’s a wonderful suggestion. I haven’t considered that one, but it absolutely makes sense. I guess playing an instrument is a lot more powerful than just listening to music when it comes to finding ease of mind.
Thanks again for pointing this out. Just wonderful.
This is really beautiful. Thank you so much.
Training the mind to live in the present and not relating everything to me , me ,me definetly help
for peace of mind. constant monitoring of the thoughts and allowing only the positive thoughts
to enter our sub-conscious mind is the way i gain peace of mind. Training the mind is the only answer
from my experience.
Agreed.
Truly rich is the one who has attained peace of mind.
Indeed!
Thank you Steve. I have been awake since 3am, now 7am, tearful and with feelings of desolation. This morning I learned inner peace is what we are all striving for, regardless of status, wealth, achievements etc. Thank you for your nine tips. They make sense and I am, now, going to put these into practice. Peace of mind is what we are all striving for – makes sense.
Listening to calm music like matthew mayer, new age genre, when its quiet at night, is very smoothing, while reading interesting articles, lying on bed, reading a book or just doing nothing at all just relaxing and let your mind wonder. Sorry for my writting im portuguese.
Thank you. But I don’t know if I would ever be happy in this state. I have to wake up every morning thinking I had a bad yesterday. No matter how hard I try to make today the best, the worst shall only happen. I was very happy a few months back but after I came in to a new house and a new place, my sorrows know no bounds. Maybe I need to get along well with everything and everyone. But the truth clearly remains that I am not happy here. I can communicate this to people here but I am afraid that it might turn the opposite. I just want to go back to my old house and place and live my life happily. Would you please please help me sort this? There is just no peace of mind. Its not that people here are bad. They are very good. But I am just not able to open up with them. They are my own, though. I get irritated, frustrated and feel so lonley. Well, putting up everything together, I am REALLY NOT HAPPY.
Hi Charlotte, first of all, happiness is a choice. From what I’ve learned and experienced, I know that people generally feel as happy or miserable as they want themselves to be over the long run. Scientific studies have further highlighted this fact for instance by investigating the happiness of millionaires and accident victims. Interestingly enough, these scientists found that these people’s happiness always returned back to the initial level, no matter if something wonderful or something terrible happened.
So the first thing I want you to understand is that happiness primarily comes from within. If you make your happiness dependent on external things, your happiness will always be influenced pending on what happens around you. However, if you gradually learn to seek happiness from within, things that happen in the outside world influence your happiness less and less.
For instance, you say that your entire happiness has significantly decreased because you are now living in another house. This means that their happiness is apparently totally dependent on the location you are living. If this is the case, it may prove to be exceptionally helpful to return to the house that you’ve previously lived in. On the other hand, it may also be helpful to reflect if you would be happier if you were not at all living in a house altogether. I think that this would not be the case. So try to be thankful that you have a roof over your head that provides you shelter. As you can see, it all depends on your mindset. Try working with that.
Thank you so much , Mr Mueller for taking your precious time off to help me with the mess I am presently in.
Certainly, we must try to find happiness from within. You are right when you say that I must be thankful for at least having a roof above me. I shall definitely try to keep a positive and happy mindset.
As for this article, thank you so much. It was of help to me.
Hey Charlotte
I think I get you very well. I have worn these very shoes on your feet right now. Truth is, you thought your previous house and environment was the problem hence, the desire to move to a different location. Now you have moved, you realise how beautiful the people and the environment you left are. You miss them and the many opportunities that abound there. That is why you can’t move on. You see, those issues within that you haven’the been able to address are the reason you moved and may continue until you boldly fix it. For my case, I just returned to my previous estate after 6 years and living in two different places. My life is gradually picking again. I choose not to count all the lost opportunities. I have decided to use the experiences I have gathered in these past years to live my life. At this point, it is usually concern of what people may be thinking about me that worries me and tries to hold me back but that I am also learning to handle. I am excited though of a new chance to life. Yes, I gave myself that opportunity seeing that we all deserve to live our best lives at every point. I hope this helps
Outstanding article- loved how practical the tips are – particularly things to avoid such a excessive media and to do such as the very simple breathing exercise involved in meditation. Many thanks
Thanks a lot Paul. I’m happy you enjoyed reading the article.
I cannot see how helpful it is to ignore the world around you (i.e. news, political and societal developments). Do you also advocate abstaining from voting or having an opinion due to their harmful effects to our peace of mind?
Is it a good thing to remain completely ignorant of what happens in the world? Absolutely not. Is it helpful to your own peace of mind to absorb heavily fear-based material? Absolutely not. For this reason, it’s important to find the balance between staying informed and maintaining peace of mind.
welll, like it
I especially liked the reminder to let go of media. Lately, I have not been experiencing peace of mind, and when I look at where I have focused my attention, it’s no wonder. I was a bit of an ostrich for a long time, and lately, I have allowed a lot of what people are saying through the media/social media today to take over, and as a result, have not felt very peaceful. I took a week or so off from media, and found that really, most if it is just noise. I have faith that things will work out ultimately, that balance will prevail, and that I have no control over it anyway. I will no longer be an ostrich (head in the sand and ignoring everything), but I will also not allow distractions and noise to prevent me from having peace of mind. Great reminder to drop that negativity. Won’t a peaceful state of mind (across more people) create a better world anyway?
Wonderful that you’ve come to this interesting conclusion!
Hello Steve,
Such wonderful article you have written. And I agreed with all the points. I have one question for you.. and its Regarding LET GO point..I have read many articles over it and what I am reading everywhere is that one should Let go off your past to leave peacefully.., it is absolutely right, but the thing where I am stuck is HOW TO LET GO? I know there are many points that one should do to let go but practically it is difficult…. I am saying this because recently I have faced one ugly incident in life and it’s troubling me. Actually it’s related to a girl. The point is that i tried everything to let go but once that girl appears in front of me all that incident comes in front of my eyes and thus making me feel uneasy and sad.
So my question is how to let go if that person or that incident is always there in front of me? Please help me out Steve, I am really struggling with this issue
In many cases, only time can heal your wounds. Sometimes, it’s not possible to let go weeks, months or even years after something terrible has happened to you. Therefore, it’s important that you give yourself the time it takes to fully heal. Also have a look at How to let go, in which I show you what you can do to let go.
Perfect, i love the way u think..peace of mind is very essential in life n d steps u gave rilly hit a spot. Another important step is the act of building up our mind to d fact dat we cant neither control nor know everyting but can only do our best, this will help u 2 maintain peace of mind even when all doesnt go as planned…tanks 4 d article its nice
Peace of mind and happiness not to mention mental freedom are the big trio every mature man and woman ought to cultivate in life.
I find peace of mind in loneliness to relax myself,to avoid the unwanted problem around me…in other words run from an unwanted situation…..
Thanks for this article. Have been searching for a well written topic on this, really love it
Hi Steve
It us true of the suggestions stated, but I still find it hard caused my background were so ill.
Anyway, it is good to read it.
Hi Steve,
Such a great article. Enjoyed reading and very helpful tips.
I was suffering from depression until last month. Meditation really changed me for good. Now I am living a very peaceful life from trying suicide everyday few months ago.
Very informative and I will be following you on meditation and how it helps people around the world. Thanks again for sharing. God bless you.
Amazing post, it really helped a lot. I just changed the decision and trying to sensible. The decision could have been the worst and could have ruined many lives. Thank you.
Great artical steve,
This contains very deep meaning.
But… Could you elaborate ”how to find happyness from your inside life, for an 18 year old guy ”.
Hello Steve sir, very nice article, appreciated , i think art and music are forms by which one can forget sorrowness, sadness, distractions, any guilt, or a bad situations that had occured in the past, thank you….
I think meditation works better! Thanks for the article.
While meditation isn’t a cure-all, it can certainly provide some much-needed space in your life. Sometimes, that’s all we need to make better choices for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Thanks for sharing such post.
Thanks Steve for this write-up. I really appreciate the simplicity and then the straightforward summarization. Have never practiced meditation. I know for sure that if one is able to shun fear before it gains it’s root, a lot of us will be soundly. Thanks again