Everyone seems to be talking about inner peace and self-awareness these days. In a world of uncertainties, people yearn for stability, peace of mind, and happiness.
But human beings have been on a quest for inner peace for millennia. So, why haven’t we mastered how to find inner peace by now? It’s all in the details, or in this case, common limiting beliefs.
What is Inner Peace?
Inner peace is a deliberate choice to remain calm and positive-minded in all situations. It occurs when you focus on the spiritual presence of stability and peace in your inner self and connection with the universe or higher power.
Inner peace is where everything else falls away in your mind and spirit. Here there is no room for limiting beliefs, negative feelings and emotions or bad habits.
Now that you know what inner peace is, let’s take a look at why it is necessary in our lives.
Why Inner Peace is Important
Inner peace is important because of the enormous benefits it provides. Aside from the mental and physical advantages, it also clears the mind, allowing better focus and memory. It can help you avoid unhealthy habits, reduce stress, and improve relationships.
Allowing a trigger to set you off ignites negative energy and emotions, which breeds more of the same. Then your brain releases too much cortisol into your bloodstream, affecting your health. Low cortisol hormone levels serve the body well, but excess cortisol for long periods is scientifically proven to cause many terrible health issues.
On the other hand, when you choose to focus on things that bring peace and joy to your soul, miraculous things happen. Think about how great you feel when hiking, getting out in nature, meditating, relaxing at a retreat, confiding in your therapist, or attending religious events.
There are so many things that help me focus on inner peace. Small things that give me peace and joy are a child’s laughter, a snuggle with my dogs, gardening, helping others, and spending time with my elderly mother. I also love to be outdoors, working in the yard, taking a bike ride, or taking a day trip with my daughter.
When you practice concentrating on inner peace, these are a few of the beautiful things it does:
Two more reasons inner peace is important are:
- “The energy you put out is the energy that comes back to you,” as paraphrased from ancient Hindu texts. Positive attracts positive. Negative attracts negative.
- Your decisions and actions have an exponential domino effect on everyone and every living thing they touch directly or indirectly. Then their choices or actions in response to yours spread to others around them, and on and on.
You can decide whether or not ever to get the ball rolling on chaos or inner peace. That’s a lot of power.
Just imagine the good you can do in the world if you choose to think differently about things. That’s enough force to change lives and the world we live in. Imagine if everyone on the planet had true inner peace. Wouldn’t it be marvelous!
Getting in the proper physical and mental states to achieve inner peace is a matter of placing yourself in the right environment, focusing on things that matter, cutting out the noise in your head, and taking your self-awareness to a higher level. It is also a matter of destroying limiting beliefs you carry with you. This is how to find inner peace.
Limiting beliefs are walls you must climb or destroy on your journey towards happiness and calm. You must break them down! Our list of nine common beliefs to give up will help guide you in self-reflecting and re-prioritizing the things that really do matter in your life.
You sure don’t want to miss out on any of them, especially when the things that don’t matter take up so much of your precious time and energy.
Nine Common Beliefs to Give Up to Find Your Inner Peace
Beliefs holding us back from finding inner peace are ideas we’ve been conditioned to accept as true. They are formed because we have placed our faith, trust, and confidence in the source of the information. Sources may include experiences, people, or a system of ideas.
There are beliefs that directly impact our ability to focus on inner peace. There are also indirect beliefs that don’t appear to have anything to do with inner peace on the surface, but they disrupt our ability to concentrate on the things that genuinely matter.
#1. I Have to Make A Lot of Money to be Happy.
The belief that you have to make a lot of money to be happy may be rooted in the past experience of not having enough money to take care of basic wants or needs. It may also come from social expectations, socially accepted beliefs, or the belief that more money will buy more things, leading to happiness.
You can flip this belief by creating a new habit of thinking about money. Try volunteering to help others, especially in situations where they may have little or no money. Spend time with these people and make note of what brings them happiness and joy.
Click here to learn more about how money cannot buy happiness.
#2. I Have to Work Hard to be Successful.
I can hear it now. “You have to work hard all your life to be successful and make money,” said my father. It was a belief he handed down to my siblings and me from his father, who got it from his father, and on and on. Later, I heard the same thing from employers, coworkers, family, friends, and strangers.
It was a socially accepted belief set in stone, and that’s just how it was. If you want a better life, work harder. If you want to be stable, work harder. If you want a promotion, work harder. If you want more money, work harder. It was that hardened limiting belief that held me back from focusing on inner peace.
Turn this idea into a new habit of thinking by reflecting on how you can work smarter, not harder. Read stories of wildly successful people and note how they leveraged their efforts by applying logic and intellect, not working harder.
Check out more limiting money beliefs here.
#3. When I Get What I Want, I Will Be Happy.
The belief that we will be happy when we get something we want is a clear letdown. From the child whose excitement about a Christmas gift fades to nothing by December 31st to the adult who cheats on a loving spouse only to regret it later, it is obvious. Getting things you want does not manifest happiness or inner peace.
Change this belief into a new habit of thinking by listing all the things you have accumulated in your life and the happiness they brought you. Reflect on the vast number of things you can’t even remember, the lack of happiness you experienced, or how long it lasted.
Soon, you’ll realize how all those things you thought you wanted changed or disappeared, as did the joy they gave you. Then, recall how long your happiness lasted with things that honestly mattered.
Click here to see reasons why happiness is a choice.
#4. I Must Meet Others’ Expectations and Not Focus on Myself.
The belief that you must meet the expectations of others above yourself may well begin at birth. I certainly remember how I failed my parents’ wishes as a very young child.
As small children, our parents exert their expectations on us to react, behave, or act in a certain way. As teens, the expectations of our parents, teachers, and peers increase the pressure to sacrifice our inner selves for those expectations. And it continues through adulthood.
Switch this belief to a new habit of thinking by practicing making a list of others’ expectations of you at different times in your life. Keep the list short to start, so you don’t become overwhelmed.
Reflect on four things:
Now, when you meditate to focus on inner peace, identify these expectations, cut them loose, and let them go. The feeling of freedom from them is empowering and clears the path to how to find inner peace.
Happier Human explains more about expectations here.
#5. I Do Not Deserve Inner Peace.
The idea that you are not deserving may be a natural feeling everyone experiences. However, it can be detrimental if it becomes a dominant belief or constant companion.
These are a few reasons we may adopt this negative limiting belief:
Please don’t dismiss any of these potential causes of feeling undeserving until you have sought professional help or an accurate diagnosis of the problem. Your physical and mental health is the main priority.
If your counselor advises, you can flip this negative belief into a new habit of thinking by practicing self-awareness through meditation or working with a psychiatrist or life coach.
Flip this belief by diving deep into your mind and separating the limiting beliefs from the truth. Once those beliefs are isolated, you can begin cutting them from your thinking altogether and replacing them with positive, uplifting ones.
Learn more about healthy self-talk here.
#6. I Will Never Completely Heal from Past Trauma.
The belief that past trauma was so bad that you can never fully recover is a false perspective that imprisons many to the attachment for a lifetime. This thinking and way of dealing with it may come from a long line of generational trauma that was never addressed or healed.
Families all too often choose to “sweep it under the rug” and hope it will just be forgotten. Thinking this way will definitely impact your ability to find inner peace.
Transform this belief into a new habit of thinking by identifying and accepting that you have this limiting belief. Take responsibility and ownership of your thoughts, then let go of expectations that you and others put upon you.
Meditate and place the past trauma where it belongs: in the past. Change your self-talk and allow healing to begin. Inner peace will soon arrive.
Check out ways to identify past trauma and steps to healing.
#7. I Am a Failure.
The idea and attachment that you are a failure are gross misrepresentations of who you are as a person. It is one of the top killers of motivation, positivity, and healing.
This belief may arise from childhood trauma, abuse, or the idea that nothing ever goes right for you. Maybe you failed to meet others’ expectations of you, or others felt that criticism was a good way to move you to excel. No matter how it manifested, it has to go.
Modify this negative belief into a new habit of thinking by acknowledging your feelings and owning the belief. Reflect on how it started in your life and let it go. Cut the negative attachment of failure loose and banish it from your life.
Recreate your self-esteem and change your perspective of yourself to being a winner. Shift your self-talk to realize all the good within you, even if others can’t see it. After all, it’s your inner peace you want to achieve.
Find ways to reverse thinking that you’re a failure.
#8. I Am No One Special or Unique.
I have heard it all my life. “Who do you think you are?” “You’re a nobody, just like the rest of us.” “You will never be anyone special. Just accept it, and your life will be easier.” It is a controlling negative belief that directly impacts how to find inner peace.
This limiting idea is commonly instilled in us as children by adults who never felt special or unique. Sometimes, it is used as leverage to bring another person down a notch, so they don’t have the mental strength to reach their full potential in a career, social activity, or similar situation.
When Margaret Mead said, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique, just like everyone else,” she did not mean that none of us are unique, as some assume. Her words are clear. We are absolutely unique, each and every one of us.
Convert this belief to a new habit of thinking by making a list of things you love to do, interests, or skills. Look over the list every day and realize how unique you truly are. Add your experiences, goals, and dreams for the future. Remember this when you meditate and focus on inner peace.
Take a look at these quotes about being different and unique.
#9. I Don’t Have Time to Focus on Inner Peace.
The belief that you don’t have time to focus on inner peace is likely based on the long-held premise that “there is only so much time in a day” and “there are more important things to do than sit around and do nothing.”
Many people believe you must be as productive as possible in a day, and the results from hard work must be physical and obvious. And this backward thinking is how we get stuck without having inner peace in our lives.
Exchange this perception for a new habit of thinking by shifting how you perceive the road to inner peace from “doing nothing” to “doing the most important thing.”
Try keeping a record of how you spend your time each day. Prioritize the truly important things, including time to focus on inner peace. You’ll soon see that you do have time to dedicate to it. Make meditation and focusing on the most important things a priority every day. Inner peace can be yours.
Check out this article on how we perceive time.
Final Thoughts on Nine Beliefs to Give Up to Find Your Inner Peace
Finding inner peace isn’t about re-adapting old beliefs. It isn’t about identifying them to reclaim them and hold onto them. Rather it’s to isolate them, sever their attachment to you, and release them forever.
Dedicate time in your day, find the environment and atmosphere that brings you calm, and focus intently on the little things that warm your heart and make you smile. Meditate to clear your mind and recalibrate your focus and thinking.
Now that you’ve given up your limiting beliefs and know how to find inner peace, check out 60 Affirmations for Inner Peace and Calm in Your Life.
And if you're looking for more mindfulness articles, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: A Simple Guide
- When Is the Best Time of Day to Meditate? A Simple Guide
- How to Properly Meditate: A Complete Guide for Beginners
Finally, if you want a simple way to reduce your stress and anxiety, then try writing these 35 mindfulness journaling prompts to live more in the present moment.
Rain Story is an author and screenwriter. She is an alumna of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Kentucky. She earned two B.A.s and four years of graduate studies in literature, languages, and creative writing before personal tragedies pulled her away from her graduate work. She is also a Donaghey Scholar and fellow of the William G. Cooper, Jr. Honors Program in English.
