Blog Posts
Peace, it’s what we deserve.
Hey friends, welcome back to the blog. Today is Martin Luther King Jr day. He once said “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
A state of feeling peace and content comes up a lot in therapy. When I do a safe space/happy place exercise with people they most often end up using the word peaceful, content, or calm to describe their safe place. A lot of people who come to therapy have some sort of goal to feel better somehow, feel more content with themselves and their lives. Often people are feeling too much stress, anxiety, depression, difficult circumstances, insecurity, negative outlooks, or general overwhelm to feel daily peace. It can be a challenge to experience peace of mind in a chaotic world or a chaotic mind.
Aside from the societal definition of peace regarding tranquility and lack of disturbance, it can be described as a relaxed and calm state of mind. Peace and content can be a state of emotional calm, balance, and acceptance. There are some things to consider to work on finding and creating more peace. I often talk to people about focusing on the present and mindfulness because it is a way to help achieve this overall feeling of peace of mind. Let’s explore a few ways that may help. Some of these ideas have been covered further in previous blog posts.
Focus on gratitude. The goal of this is to focus on what you have instead of what you lack. I encourage people to look at positives or gratitudes everyday and either write them down or find someone to share them with. It is easy when we are overwhelmed or stressed to overthink and train our brain to focus on the negative.
Practice mindfulness by focusing on what is going well in the present moment, taking deep breaths, checking in with your body, meditation practices, and grounding yourself back to the present. Lack of peace often comes from disconnecting from gratitude and positive moments in the present.
Practice self care to find things that add to more peace. Self care can include emotional, physical, spiritual, social, intellectual, and personal care. It’s beneficial to explore which specific area is adding to not feeling peace so it can be addressed when practicing self care.
Reframing negative thoughts to consider other outcomes. It’s not uncommon in therapy to hear people talk about how they are their own worst critic with their own thinking. They can self sabotage and create more negativity and lack of peace this way. Challenging negative thoughts can help stop patterns of always focusing on the negative, help us focus more on truths, and become less of our own worst critic.
Practice acceptance by accepting things you can’t change. Life can be unpredictable and I hear a lot of people who struggle with unknowns and try to prepare themselves to always know. However we can’t always predict what happens in life and we often make ourselves more upset, anxious, and worried when we focus on things we can’t change. By practicing acceptance of what is without trying to change it (or having to like it for that matter) it allows us to walk through the grief process and acceptance process of things that upset us which ultimately helps us have more peace.
I have also encouraged people to visualize a peaceful place or use their safe space exercise to connect with somewhere peaceful, using nature to help bring calm, as well as our five senses.
Improve your mindset by not waiting for external circumstances or changes to help us feel better can help create more practice outcomes as well.
Ask for help. Sometimes people need extra help from people who provide them support and encouragement to be able to improve their mindset, practice self care through connection, and finding ways to feel more peace and content. It can also be beneficial to explore this in therapy if needed. We could all use some more feelings of peace and contentment. Thanks for reading, until next time.
Emilie Barragan, LCSW
“Tackling physical and emotional pain” – Therapeuo Health