5 tips for finding peace among the chaos

“When everything is happening around you to disturb your peace, that is the time to be most peaceful.”

-Swami Satchidananda

Peace Begins With Me

Slowly inhale and exhale. Move thumb to touch each finger as you repeat each word to yourself. Peace Begins With Me.

We practice this breath in every kids class I teach. I remind the kids that even when things around them are not peaceful, they still have the choice to be peaceful inside. But how? This seems much easier said than done, am I right? Here are a few ways I try to maintain my peace when there is chaos around me, which is pretty much all of the time.

1. Pause before reacting

   In this practice, we work to notice when we feel triggered to respond quickly or rashly. Maybe it’s a tightness in our throat before we yell at our kids, or an uneasy stomach before we argue with our significant other. Once we start to listen to the body and can identify these warning signs we can work to put a space for pause before we react. Even just one or two deep breaths.

2. Observe don’t absorb

   You’ve probably heard this from me before because it is a mantra I use all the time. A reminder I run through my head often as my kids are in their big emotions. Just because those around us are having big emotions, doesn’t mean we have to in that moment.

3. Bumblebee Breath

   This is my favorite breath for tuning out the noise around me. A breath practice I often take in my room or in the bathroom as a quick reset. It’s also great done in child’s pose. Close your eyes and cover hands over eyes. Breathe in through your nose. Breathe out making an "M" sound like a buzzing bee.

4. Guided meditation

   Download your favorite guided meditation app (mine is Meditation Studio) or hop on into the free section of my website and listen to the guided meditation. Even 5 minutes a day of meditating can change the way our brain functions- how awesome is that!

5. Take a minute

   A friend of mine who is a therapist shared this trick with me recently and I’ve been using it a lot this week. Just the subtle reminder to myself, “Let’s just see how I feel in a moment.” A different way to practice the pause- reminding ourselves to take a moment and then reassess where we’re at.

Let me know how these practices work for you. What resonates with you today? Any other practices you use when you’re working to keep your inner peace among the chaos? I’d love to hear!

Reminder: It’s all a practice. You won’t always remain peaceful. You won’t always remember these tricks. You can try again as many times as you need.