5 Ways to Achieve Peace of Mind

“All that we are is the result of all that we have thought. The Mind is everything. What you think is what you become.” ~ Gautam Buddha

One of the things that have gone viral in our society nowadays is that people in every category of life lack happiness. We see students that consider their education a burden, keeping relationships a burden, jobs a burden and so on. We have also seen that with the passage of time, our knowledge and understanding of the world has increased greatly. On the contrary, our lives have become much more complicated and unhappier than ever before. So clearly increasing our knowledge of the world will not benefit us in this regard. Happiness and sufferings are therefore two different states of minds and hence to understand that we need to understand our mind. What is growth? It is when you become mature. When do you become mature? It is when we understand what life is.

As there’s a saying by Albert Einstein:

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”

One who understands life is well aware of what comes in it. Yes the fact that life nowadays has become very much busy, hectic and full of hardships. Many a times you face disappointments in life also. Loss of a loved one, not getting an admission in an institute, not getting paid enough, friends and family members leaving you in your difficult times, thinking of the tough life ahead without hope of success, these are all forms of sadness and sorrows that occur in life. But you have to understand that these things are there, they are a part of life which you might face anytime. But one also has to understand that life is also full of happiness and joy. Getting a scholarship and dedicating it to your parents, graduating from university and seeing tears of joy and pride in your parent’s eyes, giving birth to a child and seeing him or her for the first time, these are all the forms of happiness that one also experiences in life. So where there is light, there are also shadows, and once a person understands this then he can think maturely with peace of mind.

As Dalai Lama said, “In order to carry a positive action, we must develop a positive vision.”

So, what is peace of mind? Peace of mind is a state of mental and emotional calmness, with no worries, fears or stress. The mind is free of the tensions of the future and regrets of the past and is focused on the present. We have experienced this many times in life also. For example, while watching a funny movie with friends, being in the company of someone you love, absorbed in reading a novel etc. But how to experience peace of mind in times of difficulties and ordeals is the main question here. Here are five important points that I would like to share, and I’m pretty sure that you have come across situations like these in the past or might be facing in time.

1) Faith and Prayer

Being a Muslim, we believe in Allah Almighty. He is the creator and everything we have is His blessing and everything we do not have is His wisdom. We have experienced that whenever we are worried of something and we are helpless, we pray (Salaat). We talk to Him in solitude and entrust our needs to Him. By doing this, we gain peace automatically. But I have seen people who even though pray four to five times daily, yet they are sad and confused. It is because they lack faith and they have to realize that faith comes with a price and that price is patience.

“And seek help in patience and al-salaat (the prayer)”  {Qur’an 2:45}

2) False hope to have a pain-free Life

One thing we have to accept is that pain is a part of life. No matter what you do, you have to face it anytime and anyplace in any shape and size. But if you look at it with an open and positive mind then pain is not a bad thing. Pain helps you to grow and to become mature. By learning pain yourself, you learn to be kind to others. If you don’t know someone’s pain, then you can never truly understand them. Pain is temporary, but losing hope and then quitting lasts forever.

As there’s a saying by Dalai Lama

“Tragedy should we utilized as a source of strength. No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”

3) Accept and let go

You cannot control what has happened, what is happening and what will happen to you, but what you can control is how you think about it and what you do when you face it. You probably have regrets in your life but you don’t have to be defined by the things you did or did not do in the past.  Don’t let yourself be controlled by regrets.  Maybe there is something you could have done differently or maybe not. Either way, it’s just something that has already happened. Learn from them and be done with it. Just like the past, you cannot control what will or will not happen in the future. But what you can do is do not give up on your dreams. If you have a goal, first you have to believe in yourself that you can and you will do it. This is called determination. The next step is to work hard for it in the right direction. When you do that, you can achieve anything. Yes, I agree sometimes you work hard for something and yet you do not achieve it. Hence failure is also a part of life but that does not mean hard work does not pay. What you have gained is experience to learn from and knowledge to give to others. Also you have to realize the possibility that you might be doing something wrong. Maybe your method of doing it is not right or efficient, because most probably what you are doing has been done by others too. So the possibility of its impossibility has been ruled out. So seek the right direction and never give up. Remember one thing that fulfillment is not a matter of achieving a specific goal. It is a matter of enjoying the process while it lasts. Accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you are going and train yourself to live and enjoy the moment. If you understand this then you will have peace of mind and consequently happiness.

As there’s a saying by Michael J. Fox:

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation. It means understanding that something is what it is and there is got to be a way through it.”

4) Love and forgive

The world is filled with people of different categories, different cultures, different thinking and so on. Know this that no one including you is perfect. Many times you come across a person that treats you well and many a times you come across a person that does not treat you well. While going on the road you may see a person who is driving safely, giving way to you before he passes through a narrow street and then there are also people who are doing dangerous stunts in a public place, parking their vehicles the wrong way so as to cause disturbance for others. Know that you cannot change people by force. Learn to be patient with them. Don’t let your anger and your ego come in the way. Ignore them and move on. Yes, I agree sometimes people do things that get you so furious that you just want to rip them apart. Believe me I had that feeling myself a million times. When you are furious, your brain doesn’t think neutrally. So you think that by beating them and showing to everyone who is the boss around here, you will get mind peace. But when you think with a neutral and a mature mind, then you realize that that will gain you nothing but a criminal record and will give birth to an unending feeling known as hatred which will steal your sleep and destroy your mind peace. So believe this fact that fighting or abusing is never the solution. On the other hand, if you remain patient, compromise with it and even if you are right or capable of beating that person easily, you apologize, then that will give birth to one thing that is more valuable than money that is respect, both in the eyes of that person and yourself and you will be at peace.

As there’s a saying by Mahatma Gandhi:

“The weak can never forgive. It is the attribute of the strong.”

5) Positive Thinking (Optimism)

There are two ways to think: positive and negative. Negative thinking is that when you see a glass that is half filled with water and you say that the glass is half empty. Negative thinking is that when you face a mathematical problem and you say that it is impossible or at least I cannot do it. Negative thinking is that when you confront a person talking harshly to you and you label him as a bad and an arrogant person. But what you don’t think is that maybe the person is suffering from a family crisis, or maybe his child has been diagnosed with a fatal disease and maybe he is depressed and not in the mood to talk. So you compromise with his behavior and remain patient. This is optimism. You also agree to the fact that when you have to do something that you consider too difficult and stressful for you but you are bound to do it, then you won’t be happy while doing it and consequently your mind will be deficient in peace. But when you think that you can do it one way or another and you can ask for help around and it’s not a big deal, then you will enjoy the task and do it more efficiently as well. Hence positive thinking gives you a good head start and the things you consider a burden will become fun.

As there’s a saying by Winston Churchill:

“A pessimist (negative thinker) sees difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist (positive thinker) sees opportunity in every difficulty.”

In the end, I would like to conclude by saying that nothing remains the same. People come and go but the world keeps on rotating. Life can change in the blink of an eye. It can go from Heaven to Hell anytime. It happens like this to people every day. It is even happening right now to someone, somewhere. So, are we helpless? Is there nothing we can do? These things are going to come no matter what. You cannot change that. It’s what we do afterwards that counts. That’s when you grow, that’s when you become mature. If you have what is called Peace of Mind, then you can begin a new chapter of your life with a smile.

By: @AyeshaShoukat99 (MW Contributor)