What Are Inner Peace and Serenity Anyway, and How Do They Relate to Working From Home?
We’ve all heard it numerous times – working from home (WFH) is the ‘new norm” – at least for now. Many organizations are letting workers decide but it seems that WFH is the new way of life to adapt to. While there are many benefits to this arrangement, it is leading to stress and anxiety, and some depression, for those in this state.
Being isolated from your peers and distanced from the organization is leading many to feel removed disengaged. Managing those is creating stress for both leaders and Human Resources (HR) professionals, who are having to keep with ever-changing rules and regulations, while trying to keep workers connected.
Along with this is the eternal question: will this ever end? If you are finding yourself having these feelings, there are ways to manage any adverse emotions you may be having so you feel more in control and productive in your work. Having inner peace and serenity is the way.
What are Inner Peace and Serenity?
We all talk about finding inner peace and serenity, but few actually understand how they can apply these practices to themselves. Buddhist philosophers, such as Gandhi, have described inner peace as the most important aspect of life, and the only way to feel genuinely happy and successful.
Inner peace is described as a deliberate state of spiritual calmness without sufferings or mental disturbances. It is about finding a sense of calmness where the mind functions at its optimal point regardless of one’s surroundings. With enough strength and practice, one can find this sense of inner peace even when faced with stress and anxiety; it is a mindful practice that leads to being emotionally intelligent, which is needed in the work environment.
Serenity comes from the Latin word serenus, which means clear or unclouded. Serenity is a mental state in which an individual feels calm and untroubled while truly at peace with themselves. It allows an individual to stay true to themselves and not let their surroundings impact their state of mind. It can be extremely helpful through recovery and overcoming hardships when frequently practiced; it leads to inner peace.
There are many ways to practice a feeling of inner peace and serenity, and eventually you will be able to experience it in a very natural way.
Feeling at peace with yourself and in a state of serenity throughout the day allows the mind to function in a very positive way and has tons of benefits on your overall quality of life. Mindfulness means that you focus on only one task at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed, which leads to feelings of stress and anxiety.
There are many ways to find serenity and inner peace and many of these strategies have been practiced for hundreds of years; here are four to get you started:
1. Meditation is the best way to calm the wandering mind and feel truly relaxed and at peace. Meditation allows you to let go of the trauma and negative self-talk that follow you throughout the day by clearing the cloudy mind. Start with 1-2 minutes and work you way up. My nephew’s son watched a cartoon of a character mediating and now has adopted this practice – and he just turned five!
Meditation is simply having the ability to calm the mind and let go of all thoughts for a couple of minutes in order to become present with reality and observe and acknowledge your surroundings. It allows you to feel less overwhelmed when negative emotions arise and not let emotional disturbances impact your life.
Meditation allows you to be mentally strong and maintain a sense of inner peace and serenity throughout your day, regardless of the stressors that come about. When you sit with these emotions and thoughts and are able to observe them, you can make important realizations about yourself that allow you to understand who you truly are.
2. Practicing acceptance is another way to experience constant serenity throughout your daily life. By accepting the curveballs that life may throw at you, you will no longer let things bother you as much as you have in the past. Crap happens, as they say – recognize that you have been through tough times in the past but have made it through and you will again.
3. Accepting uncertainty and understanding that you cannot predict the future or change the past allows you to feel present in the moment and let go of the wandering thoughts. Finding a sense of acceptance for what is and what will be allows you to be more alert and focused on what is in front of you while feeling calm and unbothered. Change is difficult, even when planned, which alerts our fight or flight response to go off and leading to anxious feelings. By focusing on the immediate present, and what you can control, this will lead to more surety and control.
4. Another way to maintain a sense of inner peace is to keep your environment organized and clean. When you look around your room and see a mess of clothes and other belongings, it can be very easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed. This stress you experience will likely be carried with you throughout the rest of your day and will make you not perform at your best. As simple as it sounds, when chaos exists on the outside will lead to chaotic feelings inside so work to clean up your work space to create a calmer and productive environment.
By decreasing clutter and keeping your environment free of distraction, you will feel relaxed and feel a sense of serenity when you are home or at work. By changing the things in your environment that are in your control, you will feel more comfortable in your surroundings and will be able to focus within.
These four simple acts will lead to feeling more peace in your day so you can focus on your work and other things that matter. As the saying goes, ‘this too shall pass.’