10 Steps to Finding Your Inner Calm

Today’s life can get hectic. Your mind begins to race and you get to thinking: “Can I just have one moment of peace?”

Sometimes just zoning out and having a zen moment can help you to achieve the kind of inner peace that is necessary to have a healthy mind and body. But how do you find the time to do it?

The answer is to start with small changes that do not cost you any time. Carve time out of your schedule for the things that do take time. Small changes can often yield big results, especially when it comes to finding inner peace and calm. Read on to discover a few things that can help you to tap into your inner zen and have you feeling peaceful in no time.

Things that Cost No Time

• Get Perspective

We often have a tendency of making mountains out of molehills. When facing a situation, consider two things:

• Does someone on the planet have it worse than me right now?
• In 5 years, is this really going to matter?
• Accept and Let It Go

As much as you can, live in the now. If your mind keeps turning to things from the past – perhaps what someone might have done or said – then accept that feeling instead of trying to push it away. Accepting it causes it to lose power. Though you might still think of the incident from time to time, the negative feelings become a lot less powerful.

• Give Thanks Often

Beginning when you wake up in the morning, take a moment during your daily routine to think of the multitude of ways that you are blessed. Think of the small ways in which you have it good. When you acknowledge the good things that happen to you, you begin to feel more positive and calm overall.

• Be Kind to Others

There is virtually no situation where being mean to anyone will benefit you. While being mean or nasty might feel cathartic, it will also poison you. They say that what goes around comes around, and this is true. By being kind to others and building them up, you can gain peace in your relationships.

• Be Kind to Yourself

We’re often harder on ourselves than anyone else. Sometimes, you’ve got to tell your inner critic to just be quiet. Challenge your brain with contradictory evidence that you are well on the way to accomplishing your goals. If your inner critic is screaming, talk to a trusted friend or a therapist to get a different perspective.

Carve Out Time for These Tips to Increase Your Inner Calm

• Spend time in nature.

Our ancestors didn’t spend all day in a cubicle and come home to Netflix and chill. Take time to get outside at least once a day. Not only will you notice a difference in how you feel, seeing the wider world can help you gain perspective.

• Get moving.

Regular exercise not only keeps our bodies healthy, but it can also work wonders for the mind. Notice how good you feel when you leave the gym? Those feel-good endorphins can go a long way towards helping you feel better about yourself, which leads to inner peace.

• Get enough sleep.

Our minds need to be rested to think clearly. Think about a toddler who has missed naptime. While we may not be able to throw ourselves on the floor and scream if we’re overly tired, we can lash out in other ways. Go to bed at an appropriate time for your wake up call – try and get at least 8 hours a day.

• Enjoy the silence.

We often turn on our televisions and radios because we are uncomfortable. Either we are uncomfortable with ourselves or our families, so we want to try and drown that out with noise. Take time each day to just sit in silence.

• Find time for meditation.

Meditation can help you with mindfulness and can help keep you in the now. It can teach you to banish negative thoughts from your brain. When you start to feel stressed beyond compare, stop and sit for a few minutes while focusing on your breathing. You’ll be surprised at how it can help.

Incorporate Cannabis into Your Daily Routine

Changing your daily routine is a great way to start calming down, but with our super-stressful lives, we may need some additional help. If it is legal in your state, using cannabis to downshift at the end of the day can be just the thing. Here are some strains that are recommended for calm and relaxation.

• Blue Dream – A fan favorite among cannabis enthusiasts, Blue Dream is touted for its meditative benefits. It offers a full-body relaxation and a calming euphoria.
• Laughing Buddha – Sometimes everything is in the name. Laughing Buddha is known for bringing out lightheartedness and deep introspection that can be ideal for a meditative practice. Laughing Buddha can help you to forget the day’s stress and focus on positivity.
• Hindu Kush – Hindu Kush can bring on a hypnotic, trance-like state that can be perfect for pairing with a Hindu-like practice of meditation.

Sometimes, you just can’t take the time out to meditate. But working in time to take a few puffs from a vaporizer or putting a few drops of cannabis oil under your tongue is easy. Below, there are some strains that are good for bringing out inner peace just when you need it most.

• Juliet – Juliet induces a happy calm that comes with a subtle cerebral buzz along with the sharpening of the senses. Sharpen focus while also feeling calm.
• Frosted Freak – Frosted Freak busts stress and relaxes muscles while promoting appetite. It produces a happy, euphoric high while relaxing you at the same time.
• Super Jack – If you need to calm your anxiety and get focused and creative to get through your day, then Super Jack is a good strain for you to try. It’s uplifting, stress and depression busting, and brings on a happy creativity.

There are lots of ways to bust stress and find inner peace. Incorporating any one of these suggestions into your daily routine can have you feeling that peaceful, easy-going feeling in no time. Talk to the budtender at your local dispensary and see what they recommend or ask for one of the strains detailed above.