Super simple inner peace practice #2: Abdominal breathing

Place your tongue as described in practice #1 and breathe deeply into your lower abdomen. This super simple practice has endless benefits. Doing this will:

Isn’t it amazing how something so simple could have so many benefits?

Here is a way to go deeper with abdominal breathing – as you breathe in silently say “I”. As you breathe out silently say “AM”. Relax and open yourself. As you do this more you will start to feel a “peaceful easy feeling” within your breath. That feeling is the epitome of inner peace.

Super simple inner peace practice #3: Earthing

Take your shoes and socks off and stand on the Earth. Could be sand, dirt, rocks, grass or a natural body of water. Just do it. You will discharge a lot of icky static energy that you took on from computers, electro-magnetic fields or running into your ex. Those experiences could have revved up your monkey mind and put you on edge. Even a few minutes of Earthing can work wonders for reducing stress.

Super simple inner peace practice #4: Gratitude is the Attitude

You DO have control over your attitudes. To cultivate inner peace choose to practice radical gratitude. Choose to be grateful for everything. That’s right, the good, the bad and the ugly, as Clint Eastwood’s movie was called. Seems counter-intuitive? There is a science to this.

Whenever you feel gratitude it opens your heart chakra and makes you more magnetic to good people and good things. Of course the opposite also applies – whenever you are in a negative, complaining, closed down place it tends to repel people and good things. So take every excuse to feel gratitude – even when you find a parking ticket on your car or your dog tears up your term paper. Just say “Thank you, I accept this experience for value”. I will write more about that another time, but the simple meaning is that you become wise enough to recognize that there is potential value in every experience.

If you resist an experience it causes you pain and aggravation of some kind. When you accept it for value you are inviting the hidden blessing in that experience to open up for you.

Whether that totally makes sense to you yet or not, keep it simple. Just illogically say “thank you” to every experience of life. If nothing else, it will support your peace of mind.

Super simple inner peace practice #5: Honor the power of your words

You are a creator being. You are more powerful than you know. You are creating your experience of life by the words you speak and the thoughts you think. For real. You may not be able to control all your thoughts yet, but you do have control over what you speak. If you want to experience inner peace you need to be very conscious of what you are creating with your words.

This is especially important when making any statement that starts with “I am..”, “I’m…” or contains the words “never” or “always”. Whenever you make a statement that starts with the word “I” you are like a wizard with a super powerful magic wand in your hand. Whatever words you put after “I” will magically create an outcome in your world. Now, that’s powerful!

So if you say things like “I’m nervous”, “I’m broke” or “I’m always forgetting my keys” you are using your all-powerful magic wand to request the Universe to create that outcome for yourself. Be very careful what you ask for!

There is nothing wrong with feeling scared or nervous or angry sometimes. Although it may not seem like a big deal, it is far better for your peace of mind to say “I feel scared” rather than “I am scared”. The first one is expressing a transitory experience. You are witnessing that transitory experience from your consciousness. The second statement “I am scared” is a denial of who you really are – the I AM presence that is One and free of all changing moods and experiences. This will tend to drive you further down. Haven’t you had enough of that?

Being human, most of us do slip up sometimes. Whenever you catch yourself misusing the power of your words immediately say “Cancel Cancel” to the Universe and you can maintain integrity with who you really are.

Super simple inner peace practice #6: Love and forgive yourself (then rinse and repeat)

There was a hit song from the ‘60s by Dionne Warwick called “What the World Needs Now is Love”. For our current time I would change this title to “What We Need Now is Self Love”.

I know lots of people. I would consider most of them to be conscious, sincere and highly evolved human beings. Most of them are good parents, loyal friends, kind to others most of the time and wish to make a difference in the world. Yet most, if not all of them could stand to love themselves more.

For some reason it is much easier for us to love and honor others than ourselves. I have written elsewhere about the epidemic in our society of what I have called “low-grade PTSD”. This is a condition of the brain and chakras that manifests with an overactive mind, tendency toward feeling stress and anxiety and difficulty fulfilling our potential for a creative, joyful life. People with low-grade PTSD also tend to be self-critical and feel emotionally disconnected from their source of love and abundance.

The solution is to practice self-love and self-forgiveness as much as you can. This can be as simple as silently chanting the mantra “I love you” or “I love myself” frequently throughout the day. To practice self-love listen to what your inner emotional core (your inner child) is telling you he or she needs. Step out of your busy life once in a while to do those things. Take that walk outdoors, even for a few minutes. Get massages more often. Do illogical playful things more often. Get together with friends you can laugh with. Put aside habits that cause you hurt. Do that because you love yourself.

Whenever you find your inner dialogue blaming yourself: “I really screwed that one up royally” just chant “I forgive myself unconditionally. I love myself”. Or any other variation that feels right to you.

Want to make this much more powerful and still super simple? Practice #1 and #2 above with it. Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and breathe deeply into your lower abdomen while you affirm self-love and self-forgiveness.

Super simple inner peace practice #7: Share love often

Here is one of the wisest pieces of advice I ever heard. Whenever I feel the need for something I feel I’m not getting, give that to someone else. Whenever I feel lonely, reach out to someone else who may be feeling that way. Whenever I need reassurance, offer that to someone else. Smile at strangers I pass on the street.

This was beautifully expressed by Saint Francis in his famous prayer. Here is that part of his prayer:

This also brings to mind a line from the song Question by the Moody Blues:

“And as you stop and think about it, you won’t believe it’s true, that all the love you’ve been giving, has all been meant for you.”

Yes, love is the greatest healer. Love melts all blockages. Love works best when it is given away. You can do that, no matter what is happening.

Summary

Are these practices super simple enough? Anyone can do these seven practices, and doing them consistently will put you into a state of inner peace.

If you are doing these practices and still feel stuck it just means that you may need a little help from someone else. Reaching out for help when you need it is part of that practice of self-love.

If this writing touches you please pass it on to someone else. Then you are sharing love and inspiration, and that is a very good thing.

I’d love to hear your experiences about your journey.