There’s no secret recipe to inner peace – but inner peace DOES have everything to do with who you are as a person, what you do when nobody’s looking, how you treat yourself and others and whether or not you’re fully aware of your thoughts and emotions. Your emotions dictate your behavior, so in order to take accountability for your feelings, you have to first be aware of them. I no longer skate through life distracting myself from whatever uncomfortable emotions I don’t want to feel. We, as humans, don’t have that luxury – and frankly, I don’t want it! To me, being fully aware of both the good and the bad means we’re living. You don’t have to be a perfect, serene person 24/7 – but I now have the tools and it’s up to me to use them to find that inner peace. Once you get in the habit of implementing these practices and knowing how good we can feel as humans, it’s hard to go back to a different way of living. Nothing external will move the needle, so it’s all about being mindful and working within.

It’s important to start implementing these little changes in your daily routine because they’ll eventually turn into habits. Then, they accumulate and become a lifestyle. Here are 9 habits that can lead to inner peace:

-Slow down via meditation (meditation apps like Calm and Headspace are good places to start!)

-Look around and be present in your surroundings

-Be aware of your thoughts and emotions

-Stop distracting yourself from things you don’t want to feel

-Hold yourself accountable

-Write things down and process them

-Depending on your resources, talk to a professional

-Stay off your screen in the morning and at night if possible (not taking my phone with me when I either get ready for the day or get ready for bed makes a BIG difference!)

-Walks, yoga or any form of exercise

Do you have any mindfulness habits that can lead to inner peace? I’d love to hear them!