12 Benefits of Inner Peace ⋆ Holistic Lifestyle Guide

You might have a busy, hectic lifestyle. Inner peace might sound like an unachieveable fantasy for you. You might feel like peace and calm are about as out of reach as winning the lottery.

But peace isn’t merely the absence of noise or chaos. Inner peace is an intentional decision you have to make each day. Sometimes, even multiple times during the day. In essence, inner peace is having peace of mind mentally, physiologically, and spiritually.

There are many amazing benefits to making the choice to live with inner peace, regardless of what your life looks like right now. Here are 12 of the many benefits of having inner peace.

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Table of Contents

Benefit #1: Improved Health

When you’re allowing yourself to live in a state of constant stress, you’re putting your body and your health under a significant strain. Being chronically stressed raises your blood pressure, causes your body to produce too much cortisol, and makes you cranky.

But when you choose inner peace, your attitude and mindset aren’t just affected. So is your body. As your awareness rests in the now, your blood pressure drops, your adrenals stop producing stress hormones, and you find life becomes more calm. Meditation has the same effects (in fact, meditation is a step to inner peace).

Benefit #2: Better Sleep

Another benefit of choosing peace is better sleep. You’ve probably had nights where you spent most of your time in bed tossing and turning because you were worried or angry over a situation. Maybe you had control over this situation and maybe you didn’t. Either way, you lost sleep since you were experiencing a lack of peace.

But with inner peace, it doesn’t matter what’s going on. You can still relax and find rest. Not because your circumstances are perfect. But simply because you chose to let go of stress.

Sometimes, lack of sleep can cause you to lose your inner peace. It can be a vicious cycle. I share many helpful tips for getting better sleep if this is a problem you have.

Benefit #3: Improved Relationships

Being at peace means you’re not trying to control what others are or aren’t doing. Instead, you create loving boundaries that give both of you the freedom to be who you are. That’s the beauty of choosing peace—you don’t have to focus on what others are doing.

Inner peace also helps you to be more mindful with the relationships you have. Toxic relationships will be a thing of the past because you won’t stand for them anymore.

Benefit #4: The Ability to Focus

Chaos can feel like you’re fighting fires with a squirt gun. Even if you do manage to get one out, the next one quickly becomes a blaze that feels absolutely overwhelming, and you wonder how much longer you can keep doing this.

Inner peace is a gift you give yourself. But it also gives you the gift of focus. Since you are no longer panicking over every fire, you concentrate on the ones that truly matter and you work on putting them out first.

Benefit #5: Being Free from the Past

The past can hold you prisoner. Maybe it was the hurtful words your spouse said to you or the heartache of a traumatic childhood. The truth is that you can’t always control what happens to you or what happened in the past.

But choosing inner peace means you can release the past. This doesn’t mean that you have to forgive those who have hurt you or that you need to reconnect with someone who was toxic. It simply means that you can embrace where you are now while acknowledging that something awful happened.

Benefit #6: Living in the Present Moment

Chaos often stems from a focus on the future. You’re constantly playing the what-if game and thinking of everything that could go wrong. You’re trying to be there when you’re firmly in the here. This creates stress and anxiety that you are choosing to carry.

Peace forces you to stop thinking about what could happen. It takes you out of the imagined future and plants your feet firmly in the only moment that you can control—the present moment.

When you feel you’re slipping further from peace, ask yourself if there is anything you can do about it now. If so, do it. If not, get back to enjoying the present moment.

Benefit #7: The Feeling of Self-Control

If you let the circumstances around you control you, then chances are you’ve done or said something that you regret. It also sets you up for compensating for a lack of control in other areas of your life.

But when you choosing to live with inner peace, you develop the spirit of self-control. Instead of reacting to circumstances, you have the power to respond calmly and rationally.

Benefit #8: Patience with Yourself and Others

Choosing inner peace allows you to be more patient with yourself and with those around you. Instead of getting upset, you can take a deep breath and remind yourself that you can choose to be calm in the moment.

Anytime you are calm, you will automatically be more patient. If you cultivate inner peace to the point that it becomes a way of being or a habit, you will find yourself being more patient in general.

Benefit #9: Not Worrying About What Others Think

A key point of anxiety for many people is that they’re constantly worrying about what others think of them and how they’ll be perceived. This can rob you of peace and keep you from approaching others as your authentic self. Instead, you hide behind a mask and never truly get to know those around you.

But choosing inner peace means you can make the bold declaration, “What others think about me isn’t my business!” It frees you to show up as you really are because you know that no one has the power to break you.

Benefit #10: Intentional Living

When you’re focused on inner peace and you stop reacting to everything, you take back your power and start becoming more intentional with how you spend your time, your money, and your energy.

This is a big one for me. My inner peace is so important, I’ve said “no” to many invitations when I have felt like the cons outweighed the pros. If it isn’t a “heck yeah” then it’s a “no”! (or at least a “not now”.)

This can go for anything in life, including how you live your entire lifestyle. When you live with more intention, you are only choosing what is the best for you and dropping what doesn’t help to support your life.

Benefit #11: Others Cannot Manipulate You

There are sources around you constantly trying to manipulate how you feel and what you think. These sources can include a verbally abusive spouse, a narcissistic parent, the media, and even social media networks.

But when you choose peace, you stop playing the game. You stop responding to the latest news story in anger and instead quietly question what the headline is trying to manipulate you into feeling.

Benefit #12: More Energy

The truth is that many people sap their own energy by choosing to be stressed out, overworked, and overwhelmed. But choosing peace leads to more energy. It’s not that your to-do list magically changes. It’s that you’ve made a conscious choice on how you’ll approach it.

Approaching any problem from a state of stress won’t help you to solve the problem and will cause you to burn out. By approaching anything from a space of inner peace, you won’t be putting extra strain on your body (or your mind).

In Conclusion

Peace isn’t something magical that’s only gifted to a few and it’s not a feeling reserved only for those who have easy lives (spoiler alert: no one does!). Peace can be yours today, but you have to make the decision to claim it and choose to walk in it.

If you really want to apply this to your life, journaling can help. My printable Inner Peace Journal will help you find your inner peace and not just learn about it but take action to make it real for you. Click the image below to check it out on Etsy.