9 Shortcuts to Inner Calm

There are habits that can support us on our way to inner calm. Some would call these shortcuts but really they are just behaviors and activities that have the potential to help us. If we can ingrain them as habit we stand a much better chance of keeping our calm, even when life gets tough.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Inner calm, we all seek it and need it to feel at our best. It's a state that's not always easy to attain or maintain. Not always easy to describe. We know when we feel it and we know when we've lost it a little.

There are habits that can support us on our way to inner calm. Some would call these shortcuts but really they are just behaviors and activities that have the potential to help us. If we can ingrain them as habit we stand a much better chance of keeping our calm, even when life gets tough.

1. Take a Walk Outside
Walking is like moving mediation. A good long walk has a way of really putting things into perspective. The world can look a little rosier. What we saw as problems can suddenly look like an opportunity in disguise. Things we were upset about melt away.

Make time for regular walking to keep your calm batteries fully charged.

2. Unplug from the Electronic World Occasionally
Being switched on and engulfed in the online world is an ever increasing reality for many of us. This can lead to us being overstimulated, overwhelmed and overstressed.

Unplug and get out of reactive and overload mode by getting offline regularly. You'll feel better for it and the internet will still be there when you switch on again, I promise.

3. Rest and Restore
Make sleep and restoration a priority in your life not just an afterthought.

In our busy times this can be a difficult message to hear for some of us as we try to squeeze evermore into our lives. However, we need this time to recharge and generally feel at our best. Left unchecked, we can start to become more irritable than usual, snapping and lashing out at others. We need to take our rest seriously.

Get into a regular sleeping habit and make sure you're waking up feeling refreshed and rested most of the time. For restoration - flotation tanks, spas, a little pampering all count but so does just putting your feet up with a good book.

4. Realign Your Perspective (Less Complaining, More Gratitude)
Often we can be our own worst enemies. We fret and get stressed about what we don't have or haven't achieved. We get angry and upset when things don't go to plan. We try to control the uncontrollable.

The truth is, if you have a roof over your head and know where your next meal's coming from you are a lot better off than many in the world. What we consider to be basics in our lives, others would consider to be riches and indulgences to be savoured.

Making room for gratitude in our lives can help us keep life in perspective when it feels like things are just not going our way. Most of us have so much to be truly grateful for

5. Reduce your To Do List all the Way Down to 1 or 2 Tasks
Having too much on our plates and never ending To Do lists can be a constant source of anxiety and frustration for many of us. This can spill over and spoil our inner calm.

The answer is to reduce what's on our plate. Better to have less on the list that stands a good chance of getting done rather than a whole lot that just overwhelms us and messes with our inner mojo.

6. Stretch What's Tight
Feeling tight physically can mean we also start to feel tight and cramped internally. Stretch that tightness out.

7. Chat with a Friend
Talk through what's messing with your inner calm and flow. A good friend can help you regain some perspective or offer up some insight that helps get you back on track.

8. Breathe Deep
Most of us breathe too shallow so learning how to breathe correctly may make us feel so much more energised and also better able to deal with what life may throw our way.

Something as simple and clichéd as taking the time to take a few deep breaths, focusing on the breaths, can really help us retain our cool in tough times. Clichés become clichés for a reason.

9. Listen to Some Calming Music
Robert Cray and Jose Gonzalez are my go tos for some musical calm but classical, some soul or something else may do the job for you.

Music is transformative. It has the power to change our mood for the better almost instantly. Use it wisely and use it with abandon. Life is better with some great music in it!

Carl is the proud owner of Frictionless Living which is focused on helping readers live a simpler and more personally satisfying life. He is also the author of several books including Need Less, Live More, 22 Ways to Simpler Living and 22 Ways to Happier. To read more and/or contact him go to his site.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE