Protecting Your Peace in a Chaotic World

On the journey to finding my peace, I have learned that maintaining peace requires being intentional and proactive about investing in my mental wellbeing, and taking accountability over my state of mind. I remind myself that while I can’t be responsible for how someone treats me, I am 100% responsible for how I respond.

You do not have to match someone else’s negative energy. We often respond to someone else’s anger with anger because we feel that’s the only way to “win”. However, in order to unleash anger onto someone else, it has to live within you first. *Marinate on that*

Think about how you feel when you’re angry. Your heart races, your body is tense, your head is tight, and every cell in your body becomes infected with this negative energy. What are you doing to your body when you let negative energy consume you? What have you really won? 

I’ve been reading “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community”, Dr. King’s last book he wrote before he died. Dr. King was intimately aware of how important it is to manage our emotions even in the face of brutal police violence, racism, inequality, and injustice. He understood that nothing good can be sustained from a place of anger and rage. We must learn to cultivate peace and compassion within ourselves so that we can always move from a place of love. If he could see the value of peace and non-violence in the face of circumstances that most of us cannot comprehend, surely we can find ways to be peaceful in our daily lives.

Let’s honor Dr. King’s legacy and be mindful of the energy we bring to ourselves and the world. 💛 ✨

Here are 5 ways you can protect your peace in a chaotic world:

1. As you go through your self-discovery journey, assess who & what areas of your life disturb your peace. Be honest with yourself and put a plan in place to remove or minimize those stressors from your life as much as possible.
2. When you feel a situation escalating, instead of falling into default stress responses like anger, take a step back, breathe deeply and observe the situation from a clear head. Observe before you react.
3. If you find yourself facing a stressful situation, instead of pulling others in, go within and meditate. Connect with your higher self for guidance on how to proceed. Sometimes the people around us can unintentionally amplify an already stressful situation. If you absolutely need a second opinion, make sure you confide in someone with a level head who has mastered their own peace.
4. Practice preventative peace. Being peaceful is a way of life. Invest in your mental wellness each day by doing the things you know you need to ease your mind.  Hit the yoga mat, get a massage, meditate on a daily basis, use aromatherapy to help you relax, or spend time on creative hobbies that bring you joy. Don’t wait until a problem arises to invest in your peace.
5. Spend time in nature with no distractions. Ground yourself in the balancing energy of nature. This is my favorite way to reset after a stressful day.