25 Ways To Protect Your Peace This Year

Distractions, noise, requests, unwelcome interactions. These are just a few things that can take us away from where we want to be, both physically and emotionally. So, how can you protect your peace in a world full of constant demands and interruptions?

The great news is we have control over the peace in our lives. We can intentionally work on strategies to protect the peace we have as well as find more peace in other areas of life. 

The pursuit of finding a place of peace really is possible. All you need to do is set your mind to it.

Today we’ll be going through some essential ways you can protect your inner peace so you can create balance and happiness.

“If it costs you your peace, it is too expensive.” – Paulo Coelho

What Does It Mean To Protect Your Peace?

The definition of peace is “freedom from disturbance; tranquility.”

So when it comes to protecting your inner peace, it’s about finding ways to live a calm, tranquil life focusing on emotional well-being, free from external challenges.

Depending on your situation you might need to safeguard your inner peace when it comes to family, work or relationships.

“When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.”

– Maha Ghosananda

25 Positive Ways To Protect Your Peace

Below you’ll find a number of practical strategies you can try to protect your peace.

Once you read through each one, think about strategies you can try as part of your daily routine to protect your peace and inner strength.

1. Set Healthy Boundaries

When it comes to setting personal boundaries to protect your inner peace it begins with self-awareness. 

It’s important to define your needs, values and limits. Once you know this you can communicate clear boundaries to those around you – whether it’s with family, friends or at work.

When communicating your boundaries to others make sure to be assertive so you can reinforce that your boundaries are non-negotiable. And when it comes down to it, you may also need to say ‘no’ from time to time.

Do you have a personal boundary you’re currently working on? Feel free to share in the comments so I can provide support.

2. Avoid Toxic People

In order to protect your inner peace with toxic people it’s important to first identify who these individuals are. To help you with this check out this post – 15 Traits of A Toxic Person.

Once you know who these negative people are, do your best to distance yourself from them. 

This can be tough if you have a toxic relationship with a certain family member or people you work with as it’s impossible to remove these individuals from your life. However, you can set boundaries like we talked about above. 

Also, prioritize self-love and self-care to support your mental health if you do find yourself around these people more than you’d like.

3. Look After Your Mental Health

No matter what situation you’re currently in looking after your mental health should be a top priority. 

What does this look like?

• Getting support when you need it
• Doing something every day that makes you feel good
• Getting regular physical activity
• Fueling your body with healthy food
• Tracking your mood when you need some extra support

4. Avoid Negative Influences

We’ve already touched on avoiding/reducing contact with toxic people, but what other ways can you avoid negative influences? 

Social Media

Who you follow on social media is a great place to start. As you scroll through content, do you find yourself feeling envious, triggered, or not good enough?

If yes, unfollow those accounts and replace them with accounts that inspire you and lift you up.

News

If you’re a highly sensitive person and get triggered by negative news, reduce your consumption of daily news. 

Yes, it’s important to know what’s going on in the world and you can do this by asking a friend or family member, or searching specific articles that you want to learn more about, but limit yourself to this.

5. Focus On Your Own Needs

Nothing brings more inner peace than focusing on what you need and what you love.

So, before you commit to something or someone make sure you’re dedicating time to what you need first. 

6. Live In The Present Moment

When you live in the present moment it allows you to focus on what is good in your life right now.

You aren’t reliving a stressful moment from the past or worrying about the future – you’re just allowing yourself to be in the moment.

7. Start Your Day With A Healthy Morning Routine

A healthy morning routine can be quite simple. There is no need to try and pack in a load of things that are unsustainable.

So I encourage you to think of 2 or 3 things to add to your routine. 

Here are a few examples…

• Cozy cup of tea, walk around the block and 5 minutes of journaling
• Diffuse essential oils, stretch and meditate
• Have a hot cup of coffee and call someone you love
• Write down 3 things you’re grateful for then get outside for a walk
• Drink tea, listen to music and have a bath
• Go to the gym and drink a healthy smoothie
• Meal prep for dinner while listening to a podcast

There are so many variations of the above, so think about how you’d like to spend your morning and try something new.

8. Reframe Your Negative Thoughts

It can be easy to go down that rabbit hole of negative thinking, so I have an exercise you can try to help you turn negative thoughts into more positive thinking.

Write a negative belief about yourself, then write the opposite to that thought or belief.

Next, write down how you would feel and behave as if you believed the positive, alternative belief.

9. Don’t Leave Things To The Last Minute

What happens when you leave things to the last minute? 

Stress creeps in. The quality of what you’re working on can also diminish (also contributing to stress levels).

So, allow enough time to drive to the place you’re going to, work on that presentation or complete that project – all to protect your peace of mind.

You know those people who love to gossip and get pulled into drama in every direction? Well, steer clear. 

This will do anything put protect your peace. In fact, listening to other people’s drama will increase stress and create more negative feelings than you might realize.

12. Avoid People Pleasing

When you prioritize pleasing others all the time, it becomes impossible to please yourself at the same time.

Remember when you say no to others, you are saying yes to yourself.

Related: 10 Ways To Stop Being a People Pleaser

13. Create A Healthy Work/Life Balance

If you don’t have a healthy work/life balance there’s a good chance you are already aware of this. However, you might be thinking that it’s impossible for you to improve your situation. 

So, here are a few easy ways you can improve balance on a daily basis…

• Take a 5-minute break once an hour to get up and stretch your body – if you have back-to-back meetings try scheduling calls for 25 minutes instead of 30 or 50 minutes instead of an hour
• If stuck in traffic, call someone you love for a chat or listen to an audiobook
• Don’t waste time scrolling on social media. Instead, do something that makes you feel good
• End work at a certain time and stick to it
• Take lunch every day then get outside for a walk

14. Make Time For Spiritual Self Care

Spiritual self-care is simply the act of looking after yourself with things that make your heart and soul flourish.

This might be prayer, meditation, walking in nature, writing in a journal or listening to music.

15. Focus On What You Can Control In Life

A big key to protecting your inner peace is to focus on what you CAN control in life – not what you can’t.

When you focus and worry about other people’s actions and situations beyond your control you’ll feel paralyzed and your inner peace will be deeply affected. 

The good news is there are a lot of things you can control – such as…

• How you react to others
• Your personal thoughts
• How and what you communicate
• Your schedule
• What and you say yes and no to

Related: 100 Important Things You Can Control In Life

16. Spend Time In Nature

So get out there and go for a walk in the woods, the park or somewhere near water.

17. Try Self-Love Journaling

Self-love is something that can take practice to achieve, so I wrote this journal with 30 self-love writing prompts to help you create balance, find positive ways to think about yourself and give yourself permission to grow in meaningful ways.

Here are a few journal prompts to get you started…

• List 5 qualities that make you unique.
• Write about a time you were really proud of yourself.
• How can you love yourself more today? List 3 feel-good activities you will do no matter how big or small.

Check out the full self-love journal here: Love Yourself First: Daily Guided Journal

18. Declutter Your Physical Space

A cluttered space is a cluttered mind! If you’ve noticed anxiety and stress building up when you’re home, look around and see if there is anything you can do to create a calm and clean environment. A great place to start this is by decluttering.

It’s also important to make sure you put away ‘work items’ in an area you want to relax in, like the bedroom or living room.

After all, if you work in the same place you relax your mind will find it confusing to determine the purpose of the space.

19. Look For The Good In Others

This is especially good to do if you have regular interactions with someone you don’t like.

Instead of thinking about the things you don’t like about an individual think about this…

• Where do you think they’re coming from with their point of view, decision or request?
• What are this individual’s passions
• Why do you think they act a certain way

I have done this in work settings in the past with people I found challenging to work with. It can be really helpful to improve your relationship if you have a better understanding of why they do what they do.

20. Choose Your Battles

As the old saying goes don’t sweat the small stuff.

• Is it really worth getting worked up over spilled milk? 
• Does it really matter if the laundry isn’t folded properly?

Instead of getting upset about things that don’t matter in the big scheme of things, choose your battles. If you only focus on the big things, there will be less to be worried about.

21. Be a Glass half-full Person

This is especially important if you naturally gravitate to the glass being half empty.

No matter what situation you are in you have two choices…

• Think about what’s gone wrong
• Focus on what’s going right

It’s that simple.

To do this I recommend spending more time with positive people and intentionally practicing gratitude every day.

There are so many ways to practice gratitude such as using gratitude affirmations, going for a gratitude walk or using gratitude journal prompts.

22. Be Grateful For What You Have In Life Today

It’s easy to focus on the things we don’t yet have in life, but this list is never-ending. Instead, look for things to be grateful for every day. 

Start by making of list of everything you are thankful for big and small. Here’s my list of things I’m thankful for to give you inspiration.

23. Learn To Trust Yourself

When you learn to trust yourself you’re able to open up new opportunities in your life.

This means following your heart, trusting your intuition and making decisions that can improve your life for the better.

24. Use Positive Affirmations

We can all be guilty of listening to our negative inner voice from time to time and this is where practicing positive affirmations comes in.

Affirmations can be used to boost confidence, provide motivation, and give you the support to keep going when going through a hard time.

Here are some positive affirmations to inspire you…

• Having an attitude of gratitude every day will help me live the life of my dreams
• I am listening to what I need in this moment
• I am attracting positive experiences in my life
• I trust myself
• Today I will have a positive attitude, even with challenges that come my way
•  I embrace my journey, even when on an unexpected path

Check out more positive affirmations here

25. Don’t Overbook Your Schedule

Remember as a kid those long summers when boredom would creep in? During that time of boredom there was the chance to daydream, use your imagination and get creative.

Life is no different now that you are an adult. 

Get comfortable with downtime – as in this time you’ll begin to daydream again and think about what you want most out of life. 

How do you like to protect your peace?

Do you have any strategies you use in your own life on a regular basis? Let us know in the comments below!

Here’s to a happy, fulfilling, peaceful life.

And remember, you have the power to protect your peace, always.

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