10-Must Do Habits for More Peace

Whenever we want to make a change, we often look outside of ourselves. But, the actual lasting change that you long for comes from within your mind.

So, here are ten must-do habits to start doing today for a peaceful mind and a better life!

1 - Pray every day

Your prayer doesn’t have to be long. It doesn’t have to be structured. It just needs to be every day.

Sometimes people hear this, and it brings on immediate feelings of guilt because they know they should be praying daily, but they’re not. If you’re struggling to fit prayer into your life, try looking at prayer differently than you have before.

If it’s a busy season, incorporate prayer into your life throughout the day. Look at it the same way you would keep in contact with a good friend. You can talk to God at any moment of the day. It just takes a whisper of his name. It just takes awareness or acknowledgment.

Maybe it looks like lighting a candle and taking a moment to be in silence for you. Perhaps it's just asking, “God, what do you want me to hear?” There are so many different ways that aren’t huge or daunting. 

Prayer is what you need to connect and be filled up. I have found that it makes my life easier and smoother because when I’m struggling with so much going on, if I pause and take the time to connect with Heavenly Father in Christ, he shows me the way. Then, things start to fall into place. I’m inspired throughout the day, and I feel the movements of the Holy Spirit guiding me on the clear path that I should take.

2 - Drop perfectionism

Make it your mission to recognize when you feel as if you have to be perfect. One clue could be that you find yourself procrastinating or not taking steps because it’s not lined up perfectly. Or when you see something around you that’s “not as it should be,” and you don’t even want to take action in the first place.

I am a recovering perfectionist. But what I had been doing was playing small and quitting before I even started. I would stay stuck and not take the messy action that moved me forward because I felt like everything had to be perfectly lined up. 

But, what I finally realized is that it’s better just to move forward - even if it’s not perfect, even if it’s messy, even if it’s wrong, even if it’s embarrassing, even if you’re judged for it - because that is how you make progress.

Instead of focusing on being perfect, draw a line and decide you just have to put out B- work. It just has to be good enough, not perfect. That way, you can get unstuck from the trap of perfectionism and make progress on the things that matter to you.

3 - Forgive yourself

We are taught that we need to forgive others but what I’ve found after talking to and coaching moms is that they are holding on to guilt and feel guilty a lot of the time but don’t know how to let it go.

But when you feel like you’ve made mistakes, it’s important to remind you that you’re a human. You’re going to make mistakes. Sometimes you won’t show up fully. The fruits of the Spirit elude us. 

It’s constant work to get to the place in our life where we want to be. So instead of spending time beating yourself up about your mistakes, use that energy to practice forgiving yourself. 

When your children make a mistake, it’s so easy to forgive them. You look at them with love and realize that it’s normal for them to make mistakes as they learn and grow. Practice offering that same compassion to yourself.

4 - Love Where You Are

Bring awareness and gratitude to what’s going on in your life, whether you deem it as heavy, or trying, or wish it wasn’t happening. You can love the present. Look for the good in what’s happening. That is where your power lies.

You don’t have to fight with reality. Your thoughts are in your control right now! And all around you there is so much wonderfulness and so much good. 

What you’re thinking about is creating your future, so it’s important to not fight with the reality of your circumstance but learn to become more aware of the good that is happening in your life.

5 - Let Go of Your Past

You don’t have to let go of everything, but if something happened in the past that keeps you stuck or feeling like a victim, I want to remind you that your past has zero bearing on your future.

The past is done and over, so holding on to parts of your past that aren’t serving you is holding you back from creating a better future.

6 - Change How You Think About Yourself

I never want you to question your worth again. You are worthy simply because you exist. You are a human, and God breathed life into you, and you are here at this moment in time. You are worthy of it all. You are here to enjoy and have an abundant life.

So many moms that I talk to have a deep, underlying thought pattern of not being good enough. Let’s just decide that we are good enough! If you find yourself thinking that you’re not, recognize it and redirect your thoughts to your innate worth.

Unleash this new perspective of yourself and open up a path to freedom like you’ve never felt before.

7 - Never Give Up

There are some things that you will consciously decide that you don’t want to do anymore, and you will like your reasons why. That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about the times you quit on yourself. You had a dream or desire in your heart, but then the going gets tough, and there is uncomfortableness that you have to endure. There is frustration and disappointment, and embarrassment. Then, our brain tells us it’s so much easier just to stop.

One of the things that used to hold me back was the thought, “I don’t need to do this.” I don’t need to do this hard thing. I can just let this go. Life would be so much easier. But in reality, it was just my inability to be able to be uncomfortable and do hard things and feel yucky while doing it.

But what I know now is true is that withstanding this discomfort and showing up to do the hard things even when you don’t feel like it is the path to your dreams. It’s worth it.

So if you’re feeling the discomfort of reaching for your dreams, decide now that you’re going to go for it anyway. 

8 - Rethink Time

Time is our more precious commodity. It is always passing. But, in reality, time is just a mental construct. We all seem to struggle because we put these parameters on it. We think about how there are only 24 hours in a day, and that’s all we have. We believe we don’t have enough time or have too much to do.

I want to invite you to drop this thinking. Pick up the habit instead of thinking you always have enough time. We each individually get to look at and decide to think about time in any way that works for us. You have enough; however you choose to spend it.

9 - Drop the Manuals

We each have a manual for how we think people should behave. You might not even be aware that you’re walking around with your own ideas of what others should do, how they should act, and how they should behave in specific scenarios.

But it’s exhausting to have to run someone else’s life! Not to mention impossible.

Instead, bring the focus back to you. You get to be responsible for what you do and say, how you act, and how you show up. And we can give others the freedom to show up how they choose to. 

Putting down those manuals lightens the burdens that aren’t necessary for you to carry around. 

10 - Get In The Habit Of Thinking Positively

Sometimes we don’t want to see things in a positive light, and that’s okay. But I want you to know that it’s available to you. 

We can choose to enjoy this journey. You can choose thoughts that bring on positive feelings. It’s just more fun, easier, and more light-hearted. It has your brain go searching for even more good, positive things. 

There is such power in training your mind to look for the positive and be optimistic about the world. Even if you think it’s hard for you to think positively, or it’s not how you were raised, or it will take a lot of work, I want to challenge you to call yourself an optimistic person. Before you know it, it will be true.

More Peace Is Available To You

These ten must-do habits will change your life for the better. You’ll feel happier, lighter, and more at peace with your life. Implementing these habits has changed my life for the better and I hope you’ll try them for yourself right away. 

If the idea of having a Catholic or faith-based life coach appeals to you, I’d love for you to join me on a free 45-minute Back to Balance Strategy Call. I can get to know you, offer coaching tools, and tell you about working with me to reach your life goals and help you make improvements.

>>Schedule your call here.

by Danielle Thienel @daniellethienelcoaching

Danielle is a wife, mom, member of the Catholic faith, certified life coach, host of The Peaceful Mind Podcast, and author of The Cyclone Mom Method. She is dedicated to helping moms live with more peace, balance, and joy and stepping into their God-given potential.