9 Simple Ways to Create a More Peaceful Life

BY ENTER SOLOMY

1. Seek to love, not control others.
Ceasing to seek power over people and outcomes in your life is the first major step to living peacefully. Trying to control people is about seeking to impose your will and reality on others without stopping to see their side of things. A controlling approach to relationships will keep you in conflicts with others. Replacing a will to control with a broad approach of loving others instead, including their faults and differences, is the way to a peaceful life.

2. Find Your Inner Peace.
At least once a day spend ten minutes in a peaceful place, such as under a shady tree or in the park, anywhere where you can sit quietly without distractions. Without inner peace, you'll feel in a constant state of conflict. Trying to fill your life with possessions or improving yourself by social climbing without stopping to value your inner worth will leave you perpetually unhappy. When you're angry, find a nice quiet place to stop, take a deep breath, and relax. Turn off the TV and computer. Get out into nature if possible, or go for a good, long walk. Put on some soft music or turn down the lights. When you feel calm again, get up and go on with your life.

3. Moderate your convictions.
Thinking in absolutes and holding to opinions without considering the viewpoints of others is a sure way to live a life without peace. This type of extremist thinking usually leads to reactive, hasty, and driven behavior that lacks the benefit of reflection. This approach can easily lead you into conflict when other people fail to agree with your convictions. Remain open-minded and ready to review your understanding. It's more rewarding because you'll grow as a person and live in greater harmony with those around you.

4. Be tolerant.
Tolerance in all that you think and do will make a difference in your life and in the lives of others around you. Tolerance for others is about appreciating diversity, the plurality of modern society, and being willing to live and let others live too. When you fail to tolerate others' beliefs, ways of being, and opinions, the end result can be discrimination, repression, dehumanization, and ultimately violence.

5. Be Peace.
A peaceful person does not use violence against another person or animal (that includes small obnoxious insects too). While there is much violence in this world, make a choice to not let death and killing be a part of your philosophy of living.

6. Reflection of thought.
If someone hurts you physically or mentally, do not react with anger or violence. Stop and think. Choose instead to respond peacefully.

9. Be the change you wish to see in the World.
Violence starts with your acceptance of its possibility as a solution. It’s within yourself that you need to stop violence and become peaceful. Change yourself before you can change the world. At the end of the day, living in peace will be your own conscious choice. You're free to choose your own path, but whatever way you go, keep in mind that all your actions will affect those around you.

Note: This article was originally published in www.startofhappiness.com. We are making such material available in our efforts to promote the culture of peace. The article can be accessed through the following link:

9 Simple Ways to Create a More Peaceful Life