BLOG: 9 Simple Steps to Inner Peace

Sometimes it can all get too much. We get stuck in a traffic jam when we’re already running late, things don’t go to plan at work, someone in the family gets ill, you have to do some last minute entertaining - and suddenly there seems to be far too much to do and far too little time in which to do it all.

And the more we panic about what we’re not getting done, the less actually gets done, so there is even more to be stressed about. No wonder it gets on top of us!

What’s gone wrong?

Getting caught up in a negative spiral of ever-increasing stress can be paralysing. We feel like we don’t have enough time to do everything and so we end up doing nothing.

But strangely enough, a good way to break out of this is to take some of time out for yourself - to calm down and regroup and recharge your batteries – even though it seems like you don’t have a single moment to spare!

If you take a little time to regain your centre, you will make it up later through increased efficiency, capability, and enthusiasm. Try this:

• Sit down, take a deep breath, and place your feet flat on the floor. Really feel your feet in contact with the ground.
• Place your hands on your abdomen and take 2 or 3 deep breaths, noticing it rising and falling with each breath.
• When you feel comfortable, close your eyes.
• Breathe in through your nose and say firmly but silently to yourself ‘I can take control’.
• On the out breath, repeat silently to yourself ‘I can do anything I want to’.
• Then breathe in through your nose to a count of 5, hold for a count of 5, then out through your mouth to a count of 5. Allow your abdomen to inflate on the in breath and deflate on the out breath under your hands.
• Each time you breathe out, make sure you relax your face, jaw, shoulders, and hands - and with each breath, think to yourself ‘I am inhaling peace, and blowing away tension’.
• Repeat a few times until you can feel the relaxation flooding your body and mind.
• Then slowly bring your attention back to the room and open your eyes.

That’s better!