A brief note on mental peace and how to achieve it in today’s world

‘Peace’ is defined as the state of absolute tranquility, a period of zero disturbance or, from an individual’s perspective, a phase of mental & emotional calm. On the outside, it resembles ennui but on the inside, it is quite the opposite. When the mind is at peace, all the human senses achieve the state of maximum alertness and the entropy of the human soul reduces to a minimal value. A peaceful soul has no unfulfilled desires even if there are no major life achievements, no dearth of money even if the earnings are meagre, no lack of wisdom even if the experience is less, and no urge to compare even if the humanity around does so 24x7. This state of the mind opens the doors of ingenuity and finesse, leading to an exhibition of the unbounded capability and the hidden potential of a human being. In reality, the day-to-day life, the plethora of self-made, time-consuming complications, and the umpteen efforts required to remain relevant in this world, prevent us from achieving absolute mental serenity. The previous statement sounds vague and generic, but if we analyze every event of our life, it starts making good sense.

Every morning when we grudgingly wake up and get ready for the daily duties, a little bit of our mental peace is disturbed. The natural process is to let the body take as much rest as it wants and wake up when it is physically rejuvenated and able to soothe the mind. However, meeting daily schedules and doing the most within the available time squeezes away a few hours from our resting time. When it comes to the daily duties themselves, either work or family related, the more we enjoy discharging them, the easier it is to remain calm. Despite being aware of this, a lot of us end up having a love-hate relationship with our work, primarily due to the desire to do something else, thereby causing mental stress. Speaking of relationships, positive interactions contribute significantly in stress relief. The better relations, we have with family, friends, colleagues, and relatives, the better it is for us. Again, not always do we have empowering relationships. Many people remain stuck with individuals who tend to disparage all efforts and seethe at positive progress. Often, such relations are traumatic and leave deep scars on the mind. Finally, if we haven’t yet found our ‘calling’, we need regular introspection to have a chance of discovering it within our lifetime. Introspection helps us in recalibrating life’s compass, working towards self-awareness and discovering the true purpose of our life. In reality, though, finding time for ourselves in the middle of family, professional and social responsibilities is not always possible. This causes mental strangulation as well as further strengthening of the inner urge to find our ‘calling’. So, does this mean that peace must be necessarily sacrificed for survival? No. Despite all the aforementioned roadblocks in finding true peace, we can salvage quite a lot of it by tweaking a few aspects of our ‘imperfect’ life.

The mood in which we start our mornings sets the tone for the rest of the day. An early start of the day after a good night’s sleep is good both for the body and the mind. If our daily duties are more of a drag and do not provide even an iota of excitement, a good sleep can, at least, keep us fresh for the activities to be undertaken after the duty hours. Even at a dull workplace, one can seek peace by developing an excellent rapport with colleagues and/or by siphoning off some time (without compromising work-duties) for personal interests. Such ‘cheat codes’ are, however, not available in the case of relationships. Spending quality ‘time’ with the people who matter the most is the only solution for avoiding turbulence in relations. Of course, avoiding abusive or negative people (even the blood relatives, if required) at all costs is a must, to live peacefully. Equally must, if not less, is the need to spend some time alone and reflect upon our life, try to discover its meaning & decide the future course of action. For this, a balance has to be established between our responsibilities and our personal desires. Making the family understand our need to introspect occasionally, goes a long way in living a peaceful life. One should, though, be ready to reciprocate the gesture, as well as take up additional responsibilities, if required to earn solitude. Thus, despite various impediments, it is possible to attain some mental peace and progress ahead in all aspects of life.

In a perfect world, devoid of any distractions, listening to our inner self and following exactly the path shown by it is the route to absolute peace. The world, to our disadvantage, is far from perfect. It weaves a complicated web of half-truths and tries to manipulate us into taking a path that it deems suitable for us. Often, one gets lost and sinks deeper and deeper into the quicksand of ‘thrusted upon’ professional, social, and personal obligations. The result is a perpetual feeling of restlessness, which has a ripple effect on our mental peace and eventually leads to the non-utilization of our potential. Therefore, to do justice to ourselves, we must, as mentioned before, tweak our imperfect lives to keep the mind at peace. Only when the mind is calm and composed, can it employ ingenuity and finesse to test the boundaries of human capability!