Finding Inner Peace This Mental Health Week

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about finding inner peace it’s that it’s a journey, one that takes time and patience to discover.

We live in a time where our attention is pulled from pillar to post. We can easily lose focus of the things that really matter. We search for fixes outside on ourselves and sometimes those externals work. And sometimes they don’t.

When our mental health feels as if it’s dented, we can feel as if we’re broken. But are we?

My journey with my own mental health led me down the typical path of doctor visits and ultimately medication. But that was a long time ago now. I like to think I’ve come a long way from the days of being an anxious, confused teenager.

I used to feel like a victim of the world, a place where there are so many dangers, and so many things that could go wrong. This in itself would make me feel anxious and as if I would never be able to stand on my own two feet.

The world can indeed be a scary place. If we watch enough news and scroll social media enough, the perception we get of our world can be truly terrifying. It’s easy to feel as if we’re in a burning soup of hazards ready to pounce on us at any given moment.

Finding my own inner peace

“You always have the option to have no opinion.” — Marcus Aurelius

In my own experience, my mental health felt as if it was always being dictated by someone or something else and when this occurs, it’s almost impossible to find a sense of inner peace.

This is the age of opinion. It is the age of comment sections.

Whilst I believe it is a brilliant thing for more voices to be heard, I also think that this can easily become a problem.

I ask myself;

“Do I need to comment on a celebrity cheating on their partner?”

“Do I need to become triggered by someone’s comment on a post I made?”

“Why is it I sometimes feel the urge to share a comment about something?”

“Do I need to have an opinion on something I hear on the news?

What purpose do these things serve?

Do these things really matter at all?

For me, it seems, they are all emotional reactions. Furthermore, they take my energy from me. They eventually affect my focus, alter my mood and can leave me feeling anxious and stressed, all things that never needed to happen.

They are the world happening to me.

Turn off the noise

“Since the greatest part of what we say and do is unnecessary, dispensing with such activities affords a man more leisure and less uneasiness.” — Marcus Aurelius

One key step towards improving my mental health and finding inner peace was turning off the noise or at least not allowing it to own me. In today’s age, you cannot just turn off all electronics, that is practically impossible. I think you can still enjoy all the luxuries of modern technology but without taking them so seriously or the things you consume so literally and personally.

Much of what you read and watch is only an opinion, not the truth, a perception someone has about something.

After all, there is one planet Earth with 8 billion people being perceived 8 billion different ways. So make your own mind up and trust in yourself. Concentrate on what is important to you. Design your own perception of the world by surrounding yourself with positive people and positive input.

Don’t allow the external to pull you around like a puppet at its will because much of it is simply irrelevant noise.

You are strong, you just cannot see that strength right now, but it is there, lurking under the surface, ready to erupt one day.

There is something inside of you much more powerful than you realise today in this moment.

Remember this is temporary

Whilst you may feel like your strings are being pulled and as if the world dictates your mood, I truly believe you can regain control of your inner peace in time and with patience with yourself.

However you feel today, it is not permanent. Perhaps tomorrow you will feel the same. Maybe next week too. But eventually, you will come out of whatever mood you find yourself in today. Everything is temporary, your mood, your relationships, your beliefs, this life.

Everything is born from change. The universe is change, forever expanding. Nothing stands still for too long.

Over the years you’ll change, learn and grow. Your mental health can change too and I believe this can happen if you stop valuing the external.

This is not a new idea, it’s a teaching seen all over the Eastern and much of the ancient world. And I think it is a good starting place to reach a mindful pause in your life today so you can look at the noise that distracts you in a new light and ask yourself if much of it is worth paying attention to.

This, for me, is the route to finding inner peace.

Try this simple exercise to identify the things that you can do away with.

Try and be compassionate with yourself. Avoid listing things as good or bad, just ponder if they are serving you and your mood in the way you’d like.

• List what you do in a typical day by the hour.
• Ask yourself if each activity is helping you in some way or not.
• Describe the content you typically consume and ask yourself how it makes you truly feel. Think about how much time it pulls on your attention.
• Ask yourself if it is truly important to you or not.

From this, you can gain a clearer picture of what you might like to change to help you regain more inner peace and time to concentrate on what makes you feel good instead.

For more insights and ideas on changing your habits, you can follow my on my blog. And if you enjoyed this, follow me here on Medium for more thought-provoking ideas.