How to Protect Your Peace with a Busy Schedule

How to Protect Your Peace In a Busy and Chaotic Environment

The need to protect your peace is not just a trendy topic or a title of a top-rated video. It is a means of survival in an ever-changing world. One can easily start their day off feeling on top of the world, only to have one encounter with that person who grinds your gears just to reverse your whole morning ritual of working out and your favorite matcha latte. It is utterly exhausting to have all your efforts blown into green dust, just like your matcha powder in a matter of seconds. Interactions with other people can’t be controlled or avoided. We live on planet earth and are forced to deal with other humans.  It’s impossible to live in a bubble that could never be poked and popped by another human being. The most important thing we can do is learn how to protect our peace. In the process of dealing with marriage, friends and colleagues I have acquired some tools along the way to protect my peace. At this point it isn’t just a cute thing I do; it’s an act of survival.

I have had to learn how to protect my peace the hard way. By having it disturbed and broken many times. Giving it to others and hoping they can somehow give peace in return. Thinking that peace was external validation. Pouring my heart and feelings to others, only to have my heart on the floor and no one to pick it up but me. I was left feeling broken with nothing left for myself. Through healing and self-discovery, I picked up the pieces of my identity and found peace in it all. Most importantly, I found the courage to believe I deserve to have a peaceful life.

 1.You are Your Top Priority

It’s very easy to put others before yourself, especially for women. Women have children and immediately they become our priority. We often forget that our children want a mother that is happy and fulfilled as well. Being the nurtures that we are, we nurture everyone else but ourselves. We live in a culture that encourages us to consider our actions and how they affect others. Often it can feel like a personal prison when you aren’t showing up in the world as your authentic self. If we are tired, we hide it. If we feel sad, we say we are fine. Along the way we minimize our needs and settle for a shrunken version of ourselves. We forget that we are important. We forget that we are the number one person in our lives. I want to remind you,  you are the most important person in your life. Your well-being, rest , diet and daily activities form the foundation for trust in yourself. This allows you to feel grounded in you. If your loyalty to yourself increases, it creates a peaceful environment within yourself that isn’t easily moved or shaken by daily events. It’s an action that clearly speaks loudly that you are your top priority. Place yourself at the top of your to-do list and watch how peaceful you start to feel.

2. Create a to-do list

Speaking of to-do list, it’s time to make one. Put yourself at the top of the list and begin to list the rest of your duties after. You need to put “ protect my peace” on the list. Make peace just as important as the rest of your duties. Peace is something you create by the actions you signal to your brain. If you fail to plan for peace, you submit yourself to the chaos the day brings. Your to-do list allows you to stay grounded in the tasks you need to accomplish, and allows little room for frustration due to lack of planning. Planning also creates a peaceful environment within yourself. If you want to do something nice for yourself, put it on the to-do list and do it! Want a massage hard working mama? Put it on the list ! Haven’t gotten your Brazilian wax in a while ? Put it on the list. Lists aren’t just for your future husband. Lists are a powerful tool to help you snatch back control of your daily lives. It’s so easy for the day to get away from us as we get more consumed with our responsibilities, but a list can simply put the whole day in perspective. No more, oh I forgot this or that. We are building trust in ourselves that we got this. We are in control of our lives. Feel the peace already building deep inside of you?

3. Stop Trying to Control Everything and Everybody

Wouldn’t life be so simple if we could wave our magic wand and command everyone to do as we say? Imagine a world full of fairy dust and magic wands waving about changing people as we fit. Wouldn’t that be grand? Well, sorry to tell you we don’t live in a magical world that we can just simply wave our wand but we do live in a world that we can shift and create the world that we want. Perhaps that may be magic to some. The only person that we control is ourselves. The only mind we can change is our own. Accept that you can’t change someone or make things the way you want. You can only change the way you see it, feel it, and respond to it. If the way that person behaves bothers you, either remove yourself because you know your self-worth or change the way you see them and see that person with love and compassion. Everyone has a story, a reason why they behave the way they do. It is up to us to see and understand that the person’s actions have so little to do with us personally. It has more to do with their own self-esteem or self-limiting beliefs. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news- you can’t change anyone no matter what you do. It is up to them to change themselves. Your only duty is to allow them to be themselves so that you are free to be yourself.

4. Find your Happy Place

What makes you happy ? What brings you joy ? Find that place and stay there. Going to your happy place is not just a place you go to when you are anxious or upset. Your happy place is where you live. You stay there and never leave. My happy place is a beach right at sunset. I can smell the ocean water and hear the birds flying about. My feet lie underneath the warm sand. I can breathe in the fresh air and exhale all my worries. The world has become a happy place. I don’t leave there. I am always at the beach right at sunset. Enjoying my favorite iced tea in a fancy glass with a lemon garnish. This place puts me at peace. I have peace there. I am calm there. My nervous system relaxes when I imagine myself at my happy place. Find your happy place and stay there. Eventually the world will become your happy place. You will always remain at a state of peace and contentment.

5.  Be rooted in Peace

Peace is freedom from chaos or a state of tranquility. In other words, being unbothered. Protecting your peace isn’t an act of putting up an invisible shield blocking negative interactions throughout life, it is a state of mind that you must decide to live in. It provides us with peace knowing the only person we can control is ourselves. It’s peaceful having an organized life. Peace comes as we let go of relationships that are toxic and don’t serve our growth. You are peace and peace is within you. Accept the beauty that is around you and meditate on the things you pray could change and release it. Root your mind, body and soul in a state of peace. Spend at least 10 minutes a day practicing mindfulness and gratitude of all that you have. The life that you have  to wake up each day to start over again is a gift. Stay rooted in the peace that is within you.

Protecting your peace is not just for daily living but a necessary need for life. Peace is the fruit of our faith and living life abundantly. As we continue each day with gratitude, seeking only the good, allow peace to rest in your heart. Peace is given to you freely. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to hustle, grind, or perform for it. Peace is yours for the taken. Live each day as if peace is your inheritance.