inner peace Easy Practices to Increase Life Balance

Transcription

1 inner peace Easy Practices to Increase Life Balance

2 Often, we define peacefulness by the absence of stress a neutral, inactive state. However, is peace really just a passive state? For most people, adopting the life of a zen master and dedicating endless hours to meditation simply isn t an option. Interestingly enough, science is helping to define an active peace state that is achievable with just minutes of daily practice. Active peace can be described as an increased clarity, a feeling of inner clam, and a deeper sense of inner balance. This state of active peace is referred to as psychophysiological coherence. Science has shown a correlation between coherence and our ability to think, act, and make decisions. Cultivating coherence, or a deeper internal peace, can actually make us more efficient and more capable of experiencing a meaningful and connected life. The body responds favorably to the coherence state as well while emotional and mental states are revitalized, the body s immune and hormonal balance improves. The most common obstacle that stands between us and increased inner peace is stress. Our mental, emotional, and physical stressors push us further away from experiencing peace or achieving coherence. Many people feel the only way they can get relief from stress and feel more at ease is by taking a vacation, a morning to sleep-in, or a day at the spa. Here are a few active steps you can use to reduce stress and increase your experience of peace.

3 Let the Worry Go People often worry because they genuinely care. Care is most effective when we are personally in balance we think clearer, and we re more creative and intuitive. Worry can lead to overcare a term HeartMath created to differentiate when our original intention to care has turned into stress-producing outflow of energy. This kind of care can become an unhealthy emotional habit that acts like a hole in your gas tank, draining your vital energy and certainly robbing you of inner peace. The next time you find yourself in a mental loop of worry, take a time out stop and sit quietly for a just couple of moments. Breathe in an attitude of ease and breathe out the feeling of worry. Start creating a new habit of inner ease while letting go of that old unhealthy pattern of overcare and worry. Just Breathe! Use the Notice and Ease tool from HeartMath. These simple steps help us to settle into the moment. The process can also help us take intensity out of draining emotions like worry. Notice and Ease Notice and admit what you're feeling. Try to name the feeling. Tell yourself to E-A-S-E as you gently focus in the heart, relax as you breath and e-a-s-e the stress out.

4 Quiet the Inner Chatter in Your Head Inner Chatter: it s surprising how much inner dialogue can run all day long without us even noticing, all the while depleting our inner peace. For many, inner chatter can consist largely of self-critical and self-judgmental comments. Unconstructive self-talk lacks the qualities of compassion, love and care and it creates distance between you inner peace. Play this personal game. Start with a 30-minute period of time (you can increase the duration or how often you do it) for this simple exercise to help build inner awareness. During the designated time period, pay attention to your inner dialogue. Watch for negative inner self-talk. For example, if the negative thought is, I m so stupid; I should know how to do this by now. Stop that thought and say, This thought doesn t serve me. Goodbye thought! Then replace that old negative view with a new, positive inner message adding a compassionate attitude like you would have with someone you love. A positive replacement message could be, I m still learning how to do this. No worries, I ll get it down soon. It may feel a bit superficial to start, but the more you play with this simple practice, the more your feelings and thoughts start to align with a more positive and loving inner dialogue. This practice can help create a powerful and positive change that leads to more inner peace.

5 Match Body and Mind You can actively make changes to your mental and physical state. Our mind and body are so interconnected that even our heart rhythms reflect what we re feeling. In fact, personal technologies like HeartMath's Inner Balance app or the emwave2 device can teach you how to intentionally shift your heart rhythms to increase the peace you crave. These tools use a sophisticated sensor that can monitor your changing heart rhythms. Simply put, once you connect the sensor to your earlobe, a personal breathing sequence is provided to help align your breath and your heart rhythms. These technologies coach you through a simple three-step technique called Quick Coherence. The combination of using a heart rhythm monitoring device with a coherence building technique has proven to help reduce stress and increase personal coherence. Science has observed an important connection between your heart rhythms and emotions; demonstrating that when we shift our heart rhythms into coherence, our mental and emotional state can also shift. Coherence equals a more balanced and a more peaceful you.

6 Connecting with Purpose & People Connecting with others that share the desire to create more inner peace and give back to the world can increase your feelings of purpose, and in turn, your inner calm. Consider signing up for a prayer group, yoga or meditation class or think virtual. There are a growing number of online groups, such as the Global Care Room, a virtual hangout for people that want to pray, meditate, or exercise their practice of choice in order to gain inner peace and focus on positive intentions to benefit others. Volunteering is another way to feel more content and less stressed. By concentrating your attention on others, your inner chatter will shift from being self-centered to more altruistic, as your focus shifts from centering on your worries to helping others. Organizations like Volunteer Match can provide opportunities in your area, or match you with organizations and volunteer opportunities based on an area of interest.

7 Make Your Personal Peace List Consider creating a personal peace list and inlcude on it the things that leave you feeling good, more in balance and peaceful. Maybe it s a bike ride, meditating, or having a quiet dinner with no cell phones. Perhaps it s an evening walk or run after work, or alone time to read, knit or listen to music. Whatever is on your peace list needs to have the same importance as other (less peaceful) things that are a priority in your life. Make a commitment to do at least one or two of these things each week. Adding awareness to what brings us peace, and making a commitment to do more of these things is an important step towards increasing our experience of peace. Remember, peace isn t an idealistic, passive state that only some people get to enjoy because they re the lucky ones. Sure, peace can be moments of quiet and stillness, but it can also be an active state a state where the mind, heart and body are in balance as you re actively living life. Reducing stress and worry, being more aware of the inner chatter and practicing coherence are great strategies for increasing active peace. With a little practice and commitment to cultivate peace each day, you will start to discover what practices work best for you.

8 Hope for peace is within each individual s heart, but only through learning to listen to your heart can the potential of this hope be realized. -Doc Childre

9 About HeartMath Out of a deep care for people Doc Childre founded HeartMath more than twenty years ago. His vision was to create an eco-system of tools and solutions to facilitate individuals in reducing personal stress, creating deeper, richer connections with each other, and increasing the quality experience of life. Today, HeartMath is recognized as a world leader on the topics of stress, heart rate variability (HRV) and heart coherence. HeartMath and its sister company the HeartMath Institute, a nonprofit research organization, have spent over two decades researching and educating health professionals and consumers about HRV feedback and heart coherence training and its vital role in stress management, emotional self-regulation and optimal performance training, as well as increasing vitality and resilience. The HeartMath team is committed to developing tools and research-based programs, techniques and technologies that empower people to improve their experience of life and bring their best selves to their personal, social, and professional lives. HeartMath has demonstrated through clinical studies the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. This work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as The American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, Global Advances in Health and Medicine, Preventive Cardiology and Biological Psychology. This HeartMath e-book is part of the series: ENJOY LIFE! We invite you to explore all of our life enhancing tools, personal technoligies and training programs. Come visit us at

10 Copyright 2015 HeartMath LLC. All rights reserved. HeartMath is a registered trademark of the Institute of HeartMath. Notice and Ease is a trademark of Doc Childre. emwave is a registered trademark and Inner Balance is a trademark of Quantum Intech, Inc. This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the publisher s rights. Version Published by HeartMath 2015