In a world filled with obligations and seemingly never ending stress, finding inner peace can seem like the stuff of fairytales. The reality is that the majority of us are feeling the pressure of our daily lives in a big way. Poor quality food (yes chips, I am talking about you), poor sleeping habits (five hours a day truly isn’t enough) and mismanaged time can leave a person feeling perpetually like a ping pong ball darting back and forth on the table of life.

As busy as our lives might be, it is important to find the time to look inwards to find a sense of peace in order to have some semblance of balance. Not only does finding inner peace feel good, it is essential. Inner peace means different things to different people, but the core of the definition remains the same; feeling internal harmony with an absence of internal strife. As previously mentioned, inner peace is essential; our three states of being (physical, spiritual and mental) rely upon it. Without it, anxiety, stress, depression, fear and restlessness – all bi-products of an absence of inner peace – are given leeway to take over our lives.

As cliché as this may sound, inner peace helps to make the world go round. Let’s take that statement and apply it to a hypothetical situation. If there was a doctor who was manic depressive and due to his depression was unable to focus for long periods of time, developed chronic memory loss or became unreliable in his or her attendance at the office, said doctor could wind up causing some serious damage to or even killing one or more of his or her patients. The wrong medication could be prescribed, a client could be misdiagnosed or a hopeful patient would have traveled to the doctor’s office in vain looking for an absent doctor. Medical and legal chaos would ensue. As extreme as this example may seem, the absence of inner peace can cause such a large amount of discord in our lives through blindsided snowball effects that it can alter it and those around us.

In an effort to find inner peace many of us turn to spirituality or religion. As the Dalai Lama so wisely stated, “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” His words mirror the teachings of so many religions today. In some way, shape or form, every religion functions on the act of mastering internal peace and then applying it externally. This transference of peace dictates the way that we live and communicate. Aside from religion, other methods of obtaining inner peace are through meditation, listening or creating music or engaging in a relaxing activity. Regardless of what you choose to do, remember that a peaceful person is a happy person and so are the people around them.