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One of my key roles in writing this blog is to search the internet across the world to bring you the best content which will help you live a happier more successful life. Today I have found some great advice to help you obtain peace in your life.
The glass of water
While explaining stress management to an audience, the lecturer raised a glass of water and asked, ‘How heavy is this glass of water?’
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”
He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.”
Peace of mind
The most important step to achieving peace is to acknowledge the fact that you have control over your mind, including your thoughts and how you respond to others. If you refuse to take responsibility for your reactions to others, then you will never live in peace.
However, when you accept that you are in control of how you respond to people and situations you can begin to make progress in this area instead of living controlled by things that are happening around you.
Here are 5 tips to help you stay focused in order to experience peace of mind.
- Learn to practice mindfulness meditation.
If you have been avoiding meditation because you aren’t “spiritual” then you should know that scientific studies are being conducted that back the benefits of meditation. One such example is a 2018 study titled “Cognitive Aging and Long-Term Maintenance of Attentional Improvements Following Meditation Training” which states:
“The present study is the first to offer evidence that intensive and continued meditation practice is associated with enduring improvements in sustained attention and response inhibition, with the potential to alter longitudinal trajectories of cognitive change across the lifespan.”
That’s fancy wording for basically saying that the study was promising in showing that practicing mindful meditation helps to improve your brain’s ability to focus now and in the future.
The physical and emotional benefits are something that anyone can benefit from.
Mindfulness meditation teaches you how to be present in the moment. This allows you to push out the worrying and nagging thoughts that creep into your mind. It helps you take control of anxiety and stress. This allows you to experience peace even if things in life aren’t perfect. And the physical benefits are numerous.
- Limit your use of social media.
There are things that are good about social media, but there are also lots of studies that show the ways that it can be harmful to the mental health of its users. The use of social media tends to cause us to compare the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives with the highlight reel that friends and family are sharing.
The messy parts of your life are never going to compare with the highlights that other people are sharing. Therefore, if you are struggling with peace and constantly find yourself comparing yourself to others on social media it can be best to stay off the platforms.
- Let go of the past.
Getting hung up on the things that have happened in the past make it difficult to stay focused on the present and the future. Focusing our attention on things that we cannot change makes it difficult to maintain peace of mind. If there is something from the past that you can correct, then do it. Otherwise, it’s time to forgive others, forgive yourself, and move on.
- Don’t be easily offended.
It is much easier to maintain peace of mind when you let things roll off your back. If you take offense at every little thing that other people do and say, you will remain in a constant state of frustration. Your thoughts will feel out of control and you will quickly lose your peace.
However, if you focus on believing the best in others you are shifting your thoughts which will make finding peace much easier.
- Incorporate times of silence and solitude into your schedule.
Constantly being in the hustle and bustle of life is a sure-fire way to lose peace of mind and focus. This doesn’t mean that you should avoid people at all costs, however, taking time to get away from everyone else and be in total silence can help you to reconnect with yourself.
If you find that you have lost all peace, you might need to take a solitude retreat. You could get away for a weekend alone or simply an afternoon. Find a quiet place to retreat to. Allow yourself to think about the thoughts that have been rolling around in your head. Then, decide how to deal with those thoughts. Allow yourself to recharge during this time.
Mindfulness
If you want to know more about Mindfulness, I will be happy to share this amazing technique if you simply reply to this email.
Thoughts for the week:
- Take a look at the 5 suggestions and see if there are any which could help you.
- Pick one or two and commit to working on these this week.
- At the end of the week check how you have done and how it feels.
Well that’s it for this week have a wonderful weekend and stay positive.
Warm regards
John
Off the Wall – How to Develop World Class Mental Resilience available HERE
http://www.jdmindcoach.co.uk/product/off-the-wall-how-to-develop-world-class-mental-resilience/ (Special offer. Put in code 10POUND when prompted to receive a signed copy for £10 including postage and packing – UK only