How to find inner peace is a question that I get so many times on my retreats and coachings, that the entire topic of finding inner peace simply needed a blog post.

Meet my Jefke, the inner peace Expert…

First of all, I will let you in on the wonderful event happening to me last week.

What was supposed to be a quick medical check up ended up in the OR, exactly five hours later. One could say, it was kind of urgent… I’m all right now and recovering really well, but I’m housebound, in Belgium, for at least one month.

No Morocco, no daily walks for my vitamin Sea, no yoga on the rooftop terrace, no coffee and tea meet ups in the medina of Essaouira, no personalized deep dive training.

Eh, excuse me up there? Do you mind? This was not thé plan…

My very first thought was… OMG, what will I DO for a month? 

There are so many options to fill an entire month when you can’t move around too much! Just some of my ideas:

• Drive my mom completely mad with this unexpected twist as her place would be my base camp for a month,
• Revamp my entire website,
• Finally get the Tools4Life.be website up and running,
• Write 456 yogic and coaching blog posts (at least),
• Get my Darija (Moroccan Arabic) going,
• Dive into my new passion, astrology,
• Learn how to cook 100% vegan,
• Become a Netflix addict (I don’t have a tv so I’m slightly behind…),
• Anything goes really…

But then, by going through my options, I also realized that it might be a good idea to not PLAN a single thing.  To do nothing – nada – niente (without feeling guilty or uncomfortable).

As everything happens for a reason, right? Not even knowing what that reason might be, but that’s not important either. What is important, is how to deal with something like this. Could I relax in this situation, like I usually do when it all goes smoothly, and trust in keeping my inner peace when doing … nothing ?

As I teach on my yoga retreats and in my life coachings, I fully trust that God, the Universe, They,… whatever you want to call It, have a plan. And, we might think it is, but it’s not up to us to have thé plan.

And to throw in another cliché, I also believe that everything is exactly the way it should be.

Leaving me with just one option: to simply sit back, relax and enjoy the unfolding, with eager anticipation.

Mom is over the moon by the way as she’s getting daily yoga classes and she’s got a crazy chef in the kitchen. From kale chips to seaweed crackers, I’m experimenting at full speed 🙂

And, oddly enough, I felt the urge today to, out of the blue, write this blog post. Whilst it’s been a while since I wrote anything and especially blogging was mainly a big ‘urgh’ on my to do list. And now, the words are flowing!

So, yes, I’m house bound but without a doubt, this will be one of the most interesting months of the entire year for me. And in a way, not all the way just yet, in a way, I’m already very grateful that this has happened, at this point in my life.

My main message is that everyone can find inner peace, in whatever stage or situation you are in, and I’m sharing my story and these 5 ways for it may inspire you!

5 ways to find inner peace

Inner peace, at times really easy

1. Simplify

Making things simpler has certainly brought a lot of inner peace to my life.

Here are my personal favorite things to do on the simplifying front.

Get rid of stuff

My big move to Morocco has freed me up from a lot of stuff that I didn’t need as I sold and gave away almost everything I owned. I’m not saying that you should do the same but do look around in your house some time. Do you really need all that stuff? Maybe you can make someone really happy with some of it.

Set time limits

For tasks such as answering emails, watching television, Facebook, instagram,…
Set your timer for these kind of things and when it’s time, just go and do something else. Sounds easy and it might just be very easy.

Set Activity and Social Agenda Limits

Set a limit to your commitments and say no more often to be able to relax more, to put yourself first more. To feel less stress and produce better results.

And one of the most important ones…

Set Thinking Time limits

Is this it? Can this be it? Everything is ‘just’ ok.
Am I doing the right thing?
Shouldn’t I be out and about saving someone, the world, the environment?

STOP right here please. Stop the overthinking please …
If you want to think and worry a bit, by all means, go ahead. At the same time, you could set your timer for it and worry for exactly 10 minutes.  Go  c r a z y ! And after those 10 minutes? You stop and you might want to do something completely different, something active to clear your head.

We, all of us (yes, me too), can get so consumed by dreaming about the past, worrying about the future and at the same time, we all know that Now is the time. We all know that there is nothing to do but to experience life with mindfulness.

2. Silence

On most yoga holidays that I organise, we have one day that we spend in complete silence. For a lot of people something they don’t exactly look forward to, however, afterwards, many refer to it as being one of the highlights of the week.

Building in silent moments for yourself can do magic.

Turn off the radio in the car, turn off the television in your house.
Take a walk somewhere, and listen.
The more you are silent, the more you can experience the moment, the more you can hear.

Here’s a very practical task for you 🙂
The next time that you need to wait somewhere? Let’s not touch thé phone. Just look around, observe.

You might be drawn to the phone at some point as you get a bit bored. But why would you check the phone? To see if you got a message? To check Facebook really quickly? Ok, but Why? Just answer this question to yourself, why?

On a personal note, I was happily surprised with several people that apparently ‘just sensed’ that something was really off with me and they sent me a random what’s up-text message, hours before getting operated.
Not by coincidence, it were exactly these people, who I know to take the time every now and then to be silent, to feel, to be aware and to connect.

3. Be kind

On my retreats, when we talk about the yoga philosophy during workshops, I tell people that you can be busy with only the first principle of yoga for at least one lifetime. (Interested in yoga philosophy? Read more about the yamas and niyamas.)

This first principle is non violence, being kind. How non violent are you when it comes to your own thoughts, about yourself? Would you say the things that you say to yourself on a daily basis to your 5 year old niece, sis, … ? I think not. So why do you say them to yourself?

Ok, you did not meditate in the morning, and you ate something you shouldn’t have. You did not make your super green juice. You did not exactly give enlightened responses today to your colleagues and watched an extremely dumb tv show instead of writing poetry? So what??!
Reeeelax.  Beating yourself up about it will not help either.

I do silly things all the time, and I’m not always as enlightened either in my communication (ask my mom…give her a G&T and she will elaborate on my yogi-ness when I drop a jar of ghee on the floor …). However, I do not allow myself to beat myself up about these things. I just ask myself if there is anything I can (still) do about it. If not, then I leave it. If yes, then we give it another try tomorrow.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge yourself every now and then. And discipline can be insanely rewarding. However, if you do not succeed at something, it is not the end of the world, which leads me directly to number 4…

4. Lower the damn bar!

By putting the bar so high for yourself and others, you undermine your self confidence. You give your ego another opportunity to smack you on the head when you fail.

You do not need to be perfect.
And for sure others do not need to be perfect.
Expectations serve no purpose.

5. Forgive

Do you know that as long as you don’t forgive someone, you are linked to that person? A lot of thoughts will return to that person, over and over again. Forgiving will set you free, and will set them free.

I’m convinced that by using these 5 ways, you can find a lot more inner peace. Not only when things go as planned. But also on days when your world is turned upside down, and things are far from easy.

I would love to read about your experiences and struggles with finding inner peace here below so please share.

Namaste,
Rachel

For Professional Assistance
I have been teaching for several years now and I do what I do because it is who I am – it is what I love to do. Traveling the world and inspiring people anyway I can. I teach from a wide collection of tools that will help you find peace. I teach you how to release judgements that hold you back. I work with the yoga philosophy, leadership and NLP tools, that will add grounded spiritual components to your personal practice. I welcome any and all questions or concerns you may have and invite you to email me at: rb@revealingvajra.com.

Or even better, book a yoga retreat!!! This way, we will have our session face to face, in a wonderful environment and plenty of time on our hands.

Just fill in your details to receive the info pack on one of our holidays in Italy, Ibiza or Morocco.