I was watching a speech that Oprah gave the other day, about making tough decisions. She said, “No matter how hard a decision is if you do the right thing you will be rewarded with peace”. This statement made me reflect on one of the biggest decisions I have had to make in my life, the decision to lose my eye to save my life. The harder I fought this decision the more out of control I felt, HOWEVER from the moment I accepted the surgery I felt at peace.

Then I started looking back at other times where life had taken me on a bumpy ride and I was faced with difficult decisions, like my brain surgery, a break up or even a decision to attend a party that I had committed to- even though I was unwell. I realised a common trend, as long as I was making the best decision, I felt at peace but if I was being selfish or being taken advantage of I certainly did not.

I continued to think about peace and what other practices I use to feel at peace with myself and the world. I realised there were a few themes:
1. I am the calmest and the most at peace when I am living life on my terms, by my beliefs and doing the things that I love. I remember when I started developing my website I was told by many people that it needed to be done in third person to look more professional. HOWEVER, I knew that I had done my own research and decided I wanted to feel more connected to the people visiting my website and allow them to see the real me.

2. I NEED my alone time, whether it means going for a walk or a drive just to reconnect with myself and use some of my mindfulness techniques to zone out the noise of the world and focus on the now. I like to use active mindfulness, doing a task and being so immersed in what I am doing that I don’t think about the “ifs, what’s and maybes of the future or the past.” If I don’t get this “ Me time” I start to feel irritable and moody!

3. I am at peace when I am giving back to this amazing world we live in! I love doing charity work, it’s the thing that makes me feel the most at peace, because I know I am doing what I was placed on this earth to do, helping others! I like to actively give back and raise awareness, for me that is sometimes the most important thing we can do, rather than just throwing money at a problem.

Being at peace means that you are living up to your potential, that you are doing everything in your power to do what is right! Sometimes we are in charge of our lives and other times it feels like we are being guided in another direction but we always have the opportunity to make a choice, usually the hardest decisions are the right ones and we need to make them in order to keep moving forward.