Inner Peace and the Practice of Letting Go

Inner peace is something I thought I would never achieve. I was so at war with myself because of the mental illnesses, I believed there was no peace for me. I blamed God for all my problems. How could He let a person be so miserable that they felt everything was against them?

Then, I slowly started to turn a corner where there was a light up ahead. For the first time in a long time there was a glimmer of hope. Hope that I could escape the life I didn’t want to be a part of anymore. If I stayed there, I wouldn’t have survived.

So, letting go of all the excess baggage was my goal. I wanted to be a person who was happy, not depressed all the time. Letting go may be hard for some people because that life is all they know. But letting go gives you freedom and happiness. There truly is light at the end of the tunnel.

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” — Buddha

Inner peace meaning

Inner peace means feeling calm, steady, and okay within yourself, even when life feels stressful or uncertain.

It does not mean you never feel sad, angry, or worried. It means those feelings do not control you for long. You can accept what is happening, trust yourself, and respond without losing your sense of balance.

For example, inner peace can look like:

Letting go of an argument you cannot change
Feeling comfortable being alone
Accepting a mistake and learning from it
Staying calm during a difficult moment
Not needing everyone’s approval to feel worthy

In simple terms, inner peace is a quiet sense of calm and acceptance inside you.

Inner peace synonym

Inner peace can also be called peace of mind, inner calm, serenity, or tranquility. These words describe a feeling of quiet and calm within yourself, especially when life feels busy or stressful.

Other related terms include contentment, balance, harmony, stillness, and centeredness. They suggest feeling emotionally steady, comfortable with yourself, and less controlled by outside pressure.

For a more personal or spitual tone, you might use phrases like a peaceful heart, a quiet spirit, soulful calm, inner harmony, or emotional well-being. Each phrase carries a slightly different feeling, but all point to a calm and settled state of mind.

Finding inner peace

So, you might ask “How do you find inner peace?” It depends on what it means to you. You could give up something that you know is detrimental to you. Maybe something that your holding onto that is bad, but you’re hoping it turns in respect to good. I used to do that a lot, until I realized that it was just weighing me down and making me miserable.

One thing I gave up was holding grudges. They never did me any good, and I don’t like the act of trying to extract revenge on someone. Maybe grudge doesn’t equal revenge, but in my book it used to. There is so much hate in the world today, it’s nice to try not to be one of them.

Also, I try to spend more time with the people I love. Before, I used to hide from everyone (social anxiety). Now I spend more time with my family which usually means going out to eat with them.

That’s my inner peace, trying to make my life better than the last day. I know with all the choas in the world, how can you find inner peace? You take something small and make it big in your life. You can’t control the whole world, but you can control what happens in your space.

Find your inner peace meaning

Your inner peace meaning may be different than the next person. Finding your meaning depends on what is meaningful to you. For example, if your out and about, holding the door for other people can give you a sense of pride. That can be a part of inner peace.

Awhile back at the grocery store, I was leaving, and the guy who brings in the carts asked me how I was doing? I answered him, and he told me to have a good day. Just that one short conversation stuck with me. It made me feel that there is still humanity in this turmoil world, and I just experienced it.

Finding the small actions in others makes the unbearable a little bit more tolerable. Not necessarily okay, but it puts sunshine where there is darkness. And darkness can be a heavy burden. There are those out there who are full of sunshine no matter how dark it gets.

Meditation for inner peace

Meditation is one of my favorite subjects. I started experiencing it about two years ago. It helps you get out of your head, and into a state of calmness. Inner peace is calmness. Before I practiced meditation, I felt stuck in a constant state of yuck (for lack of a better word). I was always depressed and the anxiety was ruining my life.

Meditation was one of the best things I ever tried. Some of you may be saying that meditation isn’t for you. I was one of those skeptics, until I went ahead and tried it. Meditation is what you make it out to be.

It helps you think in a clearer space which can lead you to inner peace. I have found that meditation can lead you to inner peace in a fast and decisive way. That calmness I talked about earlier is what released me from my anxiety. I never thought I’d hear myself say that.

“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” — Dalai Lama XIV

Prayer for inner peace

Some people believe that praying for inner peace will make it show up. I believe in prayer, and I always thank God when something positive shows up in my life. I’m not a fanatic when it comes to religion, but I do believe sometimes prayer can makes things happen. Does it happen all the time, no? If that were the case, everyone would be rich.

I believe God listens, but He doesn’t always answer. I’m more of a person that believes inner peace comes from within rather from external forces. Maybe God has a hand in it sometimes, but nine times out of ten you have accomplished it yourself.

How to find inner peace and happiness within yourself

Finding inner peace and happiness is up to you for the most part. Accomplishing things that make you feel good about yourself. Some people will never accomplish these because they are stuck in a miserable life and don’t know how to escape. Or, they are so used to a miserable life, they don’t want change. Change of the unknown can sometimes be scary.

I believe that when you find happiness, inner peace can follow. Not automatically will but can follow. I think true inner peace comes to those that are truly happy and show it through actions for other people. Give onto others as you would have been done onto you (or something like that saying goes).

The art of letting go

The art of letting go is just that…an art. Certain situations aren’t always going to be perfect, so you have to let them go. Don’t dwell on them, and turn it into a fighting match. Conflict is what makes inner peace unattainable. There is enough conflict in the world today thanks to certain people.

Letting go is the positive aspect of resolving conflicts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everything should be let go. There are certain times when letting go is not an option. You have to decide when letting go is the right thing to do.

For me, I let go of my anxiety that I was dealing with. My mind was so focused on it that it made the anxiety worse. I decided to be proactive rather than reactive. I took control of my life by doing positive things that would fight the anxiety. Meditation was one of them. I let go of the fear that had a grip on me. I started trusting people more. And, I started conversations without fear of retribution. Life became easier.

Don’t hold a grudge

I mentioned this earlier, holding grudges only makes you a bitter person that nobody wants to be around. Mixed in with the depression, I was mean and bitter at times. If anyone looked at me wrong, I would become angry. I was only making myself that way because I didn’t know how to deal with the depression. I didn’t know how to heal myself at the time.

So, I held a lot of grudges. Holding on to grudges only makes you a sad person. Nobody wants to be around you, and sometimes you can’t even stand what you’ve become.

What good is a grudge anyway? It only wants you to get back at the other person for something you perceived they’ve done wrong to you. This is part of the letting go. Some circumstances aren’t worth fighting over. As that saying goes “let bigons be bigons.”

Everyone makes mistakes

Like the title says, everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are made as a learning curve. How else will you learn if you do something wrong, you know not to do it a second time. Although, some people never learn those lessons.

I used to beat myself up when I made a mistake. I was never trying to be perfect, I just thought if I made a mistake, it was the end of the world. Literally went from zero to ten in a split of a second. I would put myself in a negative view in front of everyone.

Nowadays, I accept and learn from my mistakes so I can be a person who is welcomed into a group instead of being an outcast. Being an outcast leads to a very lonely and depressing life. I don’t want to ever go back to that again.

Don’t try to be perfect

Letting go of trying to be perfect is a way of telling yourself that you are fine just the way you are (mistakes and all). Besides, there is no such thing as a perfect person, although some people try to be, or think they are. We call those people “stuck up.”

You’ll never acheive perfection because it’s an illusion. Illusions are fantasy in a bottle. No matter how hard you try to cram it in there, it just won’t fit. Perfectionism is driven primarily by internal pressure, such as the desire to avoid failure or harsh judgment.

Perfectionists shrug off compliments and forget to celebrate their success. Instead, they look to specific people in their lives for approval and validation. Since I was emotionally and physically abused by my teacher in first grade, I always looked for approval from anyone that I thought would not judge me like the teacher did.

“I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.”― Henry Fielding

Conclusion

The search for inner peace is a journey to accepting you for who you are. You don’t have to be perfect in order to find that peace. Inner peace is a quest and an amazing ride to believe in who you want to be and nothing else.

Letting go of things that are harmful to your well-being is how to achieve inner peace. Holding onto negative feelings only gets you negative results. Believing in your ability in finding peace gives you the strength to live a wonderful life.

My inner peace is a welcoming state of mind since the depression and anxiety stole it from me for so long. So, I sit here typing this, and hope you have a chance to find your inner peace and wisdom that comes along with it.

Cindee Murphy
“One voice who found inner peace by accepting me for me.”