As someone focused on dream pursuit, living expectantly and working towards the life I dream of, there can be a lot of waiting involved, or a lot of disappointment or hoping for things to change. All this, if unchecked can lead to being dissatisfied with things as they are and hating current circumstances because more often than not they contradict the life you dream of or the life you envision for yourself. I’ve found to curb this you need some sort of mindfulness practice or some way of finding and keeping peace within yourself.
Each person gets to decide what that looks like for them. Although I’m such a big dreamer and have many goals, one thing that is now top of my list is what I call “seeking serenity.” By this I mean making sure I am at peace. I use the word serenity because I found it encompasses the exact state I want. The Oxford dictionary defines serenity as “the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.” I’ve found that if I feel serene then circumstances around me don’t really matter. I know they exist and I know how they affect me but they are just an outside factor that I can choose not to allow to take away my peace or to cause me stress, no matter what they are. Things that may have stressed me in the past, pass by without much effect.
For example, about a week ago we went for 2 days without power/electricity (usually it’s a number of hours) but I didn’t lose it. In the past that would have been so stressful for me, no internet?! Not this time. I didn’t like it but I didn’t let it affect how I felt or how I went about my day. I let the time on my hands give me something to do, to focus on.
As I said earlier, each person gets to decide what seeking serenity looks like for them. For me it’s starting my day well and letting it set the tone for the rest of the day. After thanking God for allowing me to see another beautiful, amazing and awesome day, I begin by:
- Listening to self-love affirmations and saying them out loud, from a video I found on YouTube. This I do because self-love is something I’m currently working on.
- Reading the Bible (at the moment Psalm 23 and Luke 12:22-31 daily.)
- Writing down what I am thankful for or what’s making me happy.
- I read through a summarised version of what I see in my future.
- I read through a list of Bible verses on faith and how you can ask God for anything that I compiled.
- Listening to wealth & prosperity affirmations and saying them out loud. I also found these on YouTube. I do them to shift from a mind-set of lack to one of abundance. (Doing the above 6 things takes only the first hour of my morning.)
- The final thing is I visualise a part of my future, as in I use my imagination to play out in my mind something I look forward to in the future. This I do at some point during the day or bits and pieces throughout the day. I wrote a list of things and each day I choose one. For instance one day it could be living in an ocean view home, another day it could be seeing myself speaking at an international event or another time it could be travelling to different places around the world.
I’ve shared what’s currently working for me to seek serenity and I can tell you it’s making a huge difference in my life even though I only started less than two months ago. If you’re not doing something to start your day well, maybe change that this year and find what works for you. Whether it’s writing in a journal or taking a walk or anything else. Something else I’ve found works for me is, I found a YouTube video of the ocean with the sounds of the water. I watch and listen to that sometimes because I find it calming. I also have pieces of classical music (something new to me) that I listen to if I’m starting to feel agitated. I now truly treasure my peace above all else. I hope you find your version of serenity this year so that you can be at peace as you live your life and pursue your dreams.
