Inner peace: how to find it and not lose it

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Smile

When you wake up, direct your attention to the body — go through it with your mind’s eye from the top of your head to the tips of your fingers and toes. Give yourself a couple of minutes to feel how you are at the moment: whether you woke up energetic or tired, whether you are happy about the new day or not, how your body feels — tense or relaxed, rested or tired.

The task is not to evaluate and analyze the state, but simply to notice it, to realize it. If you feel fatigue, tension in some place, hold your attention on it and, as you exhale, relax this part of the body, release the tension. For example, you can imagine that you are exhaling all your tension into the ground — even if you are lying on the bed.

And now try to smile with different parts of the body: feel how your eyes, face, heart, liver and internal organs, back are smiling. Our body doesn’t just reflect emotions, it creates them. And, smiling with the whole body, we fill it with the energy of joy and cheerfulness for a new day.

Be grateful

This exercise is well suited to end the day. Gratitude has a huge healing effect. The feeling of gratitude is a signal to the nervous system that everything is in order. In our life there is completeness, harmony, we do not need to run anywhere, achieve anything, nobody likes it.

Of course, we have hard days and problems, but there is a lot of good in everyone’s life. Think about what you can sincerely thank the world for tonight — what was good during the day? And let gratitude fill your heart.

Relax your eyes

Many people work all day in front of monitor screens, and by the evening our eyes are very tired, and our head is buzzing with thoughts and work problems.

Close your eyes. Most likely, you will notice that your eyeballs continue to move, tremble. This activity is directly related to the activity of the mind. Now bring your attention to your eyes and relax them as you exhale, just as you relaxed the muscles in your body. And relax more and more.

You will notice that the movement of the eyeballs will slow down, the mind will begin to calm down. Your breath will sink into your lower abdomen, and there will be a general feeling of relaxation and peace in which it is easy to fall asleep. Ideally, in complete darkness and with a dark mask over your eyes, removing all gadgets.

At work

ground yourself

Sitting or standing, direct your attention to two feet at the same time. You do not think about the feet and do not look at them, but you direct your attention to them and feel their contact with the floor. It is important that this is a feeling of two feet at the same time. Usually people notice that the moment when all their attention is directed to the feet, the mind calms down, and the breath sinks into the lower abdomen.

Look around. Pay attention to what has changed in the perception of the world around and employees in the office. Perhaps you see something that you did not notice behind the flow of thoughts and interpretations before. You may notice that your perception becomes clearer and more neutral, nonjudgmental.

This practice allows us to quickly return our attention to the present moment, while remaining open to everything that surrounds us. It is good to use during a conversation or meeting when you need to ground yourself and bring attention back to yourself.

Learn wisdom from plants

Employment is not an objective fact, but a state of mind. Often, in order to be in time for everything, it is enough for us to stop switching in a panic from one thing to another (because of this, we lose about 30% of time and efficiency) and start acting very slowly and carefully. And here we have a lot to learn from the plants that are available in almost every office.

Trees and flowers are in no hurry. They are the embodiment of the peace of the present moment. They grow and bloom at their own pace. Give yourself 5-10 minutes to do nothing and try to experience what it’s like to be a plant. Allow yourself to feel what rhythm is good for you now. How does it feel to choose the rhythm of work from within, and not under the influence of external circumstances?

In transport

Watch your breath

Staying calm during rush hour can be difficult. Especially in the evening after work. But you can use your time on the road to practice watching your breath — it activates the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system and prepares the body and mind for rest.

The advantage of this practice is that it can be done in any position — both standing and sitting. Pay attention to your breath. To inhale and exhale. Pause between them. Follow the exhalation and then the inhalation. To do this, you can direct your attention to the tip of the nose and focus on the feeling of air moving through the nostrils, or on the lower abdomen and watch the abdominal wall move slightly back and forth in time with the exhalation and inhalation.

At some point, you will notice that you are distracted, forget about breathing and think about something else. Or consider neighbors. Or read ads. Don’t scold yourself, but gently bring your attention back to your breath.

Practice Loving-Kindness

From the point of view of many meditation traditions, the true nature of human beings is love and joy. But as long as our mind is restless, and our attention does not belong to us and is controlled by external events, we cannot feel this joy and love. Here is a short version of the practice of loving kindness.

Feel with all your heart the joy and gratitude that you are. That you are alive and well. And wish yourself love, joy, abundance, health. Feel that joy in your heart. Now look at the people around you, completely unfamiliar to you, and admit that they, like you, dream of peace, love and joy. Wish them all this.