How to Have a Peaceful Mind: Nine Easy Practices
Have you ever wondered how to have a peaceful mind? We all have. In fact, we all say we want to be happy and find inner peace. But it is hard to do and at times seems impossible to achieve for longer than a few fleeting moments. As if on a looped tape, regrets about the past and fears for the future run us ragged. Our troubled minds run over and over on a negative groove that causes suffering. Great suffering.
In the face of all the sewage of ain’t-my-life-awful self-talk with its stinking stress and anxiety, we need a big-time force to help us. Something powerful enough to allow us to have a peaceful mind and help us to enjoy the many (yes, many!) roses strewn our way.
Yet, there is “something” that has worked for thousands of years to alleviate the suffering of the troubled mind and allows us to have a peaceful mind.
How to Have a Peaceful Mind: The Willingness to Connect to the Spiritual Dimension
This is the ultimate connection that takes us out of the constant muddied stream of thinking, thinking, thinking and into the real world of the present moment with all its depth and richness.
Relief from pain is ours if we can turn to a spiritual practice, a Higher Power (HP), or the God of our understanding. That relief is available to us even when we turn to an HP that we can’t or don’t understand. In fact, simply being willing to try such a connection gives you a clearinghouse for your resentments, pain, and upset; a balm for your troubled spirit; inner peace and a renewed ability to have a peaceful mind.
How to Have a Peaceful Mind: Dating & Love
When you focus on Spirit, your whole life opens up and is made much easier. This includes your dating and love life. You can transcend the need to worry, fret, and be in control and run the show by putting so-called “bad” and “good” events into the hands of your Higher Power, God Spirit, or All-That-Is. As you do that, you will often find that a thing that seemed awful turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to you. And Vice Versa! It is hard to see our own overall growth plan and at times we may lose out on something or someone we really wanted, but ultimately it turns out we were protected from a lot of suffering!
Dating and love relationships go much easier if you practice going with the flow, and accepting that you don’t really know what any event is for– in terms of your growth and development. You can accept life on life’s terms. And move mountains to benefit yourself and others because your will is aligned with your highest Diamond Self, or what I call your Spiritual Diamond Self. This is where your true contentment, serenity, joy, and ultimate fulfillment are to be found.
How to Have a Peaceful Mind: A Real World Example
Here is an email that I got from Dee, one of our coaching clients:
“Dear Dr. Diana, You are a life saver and I want to say thanks from the bottom of my heart! I have done your spiritual Diamond Self work and it has made me much more serene and accepting of things I never thought I could deal with in my life—my father-in-law’s cancer, my sister’s alcoholism and my boyfriend of several years running off with another woman. Even though I was devastated when he left, I think I was being protected because he was an alcoholic too! And now I am dating a fantastic guy who does not drink and I don’t want to blow it because of any ongoing stress in my life. What else can I do to deepen my spiritual work and maintain a peaceful mind?”
How to Have a Peaceful Mind: Nine Easy Practices
My answer to Dee was as follows:
Dee, you are so very welcome. I’m grateful that you are doing this all-important work for yourself and your new Beloved. Here are nine powerful steps you can take to have a peaceful mind.
- Praying—not for yourself but for others for a few minutes at the beginning or end of each day. This has a very surprising calming effect!
- Meditating for fifteen or twenty minutes before breakfast and before you go to sleep. Your nervous system will quiet down.
- Reading spiritual passages or uplifting literature when you first awaken each morning
- Singing along to gospel or other spiritual songs
- Going to Al-Anon or any other twelve-step group that you qualify for. These are phenomenal paths to spiritual awakening and a blessed and peaceful mind!
- Attending a church or synagogue service that is inspirational and has spiritual meaning for you
- Watching inspiring movies that have a spiritual theme
- Going on a meditation or spiritual retreat that calls to you
- Traveling to an awe-inspiring place in nature that’s nearby
How to Have a Peaceful Mind: The Loving Mother Meditation
Meditation is such an important practice for having a peaceful mind, that I’ve created a free meditation MP3 designed to help you soothe your troubled mind. It’s based on the archetype of an unconditionally loving mother (not your real mother, even if she was unconditionally caring!). If the word “mother” brings negative associations to mind, you can substitute “angel” or “goddess.” Download this 15-minute MP3 here. It’s an invaluable tool designed to start or end your day in a state of inner peace and serenity.
As I told Dee, practice meditation or prayer, listen to music or spend a little time in Nature. And, please be willing to open yourself to connect to a Higher Power or Something Greater than yourself. It could be the universe of which we are but a speck, Spirit, light, angels, power animals, or love itself. When you connect to Something Greater, no matter how you understand it, you don’t have to be alone. Or make it all happen in your life by sheer will. Over time you will develop a sense that the universe is benevolent and trust that it will provide support for you. Even when things seem to be shockingly negative or your life seems to be falling apart. All things must pass even the bad times. And that attitude and these practices help me to have a peaceful mind.
