Letting go of unhealthy habits can be transformative in regaining inner peace. As I have begun my reflection practices on the year gone by, I made a note of all the unhealthy habits I let go of this year for my own inner peace.

You know that moment when you’re stuck in the supermarket line and the contents of your bag spill on the floor just as your phone starts ringing? That’s when I knew I needed to find inner peace within, right as I was suppressing the urge to unleash a stream of four-letter words(!)

I think we look for circumstances to help achieve a sense of inner peace. I know I do. I know I function better when I am at peace within. In fact, this calm, compassionate, deep awareness is actually within each of us. It’s like we have a deep reservoir of peacefulness and serenity within. What we have to learn to do is tap into it. ❤

The first step in tapping into that deep sense of peace is to dissolve the unhealthy habits that are a HUGE barrier to it.

Here are some common unhealthy habits that I recognize as barriers, and had to let go of this past year to regain inner calm, along with suggestions for how you can address them:

5 Unhealthy Habits I Let Go Of This Year To Regain Inner Peace

1. Constant Comparison with Others

• Why It’s Harmful: Comparing my life, achievements, or appearance to others often leads to feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt within me. This is something I, like many of you, have struggled with. It’s an inevitable part of the external conversation with acquaintances or even friends….But I know it got worse when I started doing it to myself in my own mind.
• How to Let Go: I started practicing gratitude for my own journey, by appreciating how much I have achieved and how far I have come in my life has helped immensely. Limiting my time on social media and curating my feed to include inspiring and uplifting content worked wonders too. I consciously choose to nurture my mind with positive vibrations daily.

2. Over-commitment and Lack of Boundaries

• Why It’s Harmful: Stretching myself too thin caused so much burnout and stress in my life. As I kept examining why I was being so triggered constantly, I realised it was all because of my people-pleasing brain, that needed to say YES to everything. I had leterally no space to breathe, because I was so over committed to everything that did not bring me any joy or peace.
• How to Let Go: Learning to say “no” without guilt, was a game changer for my inner peace. Prioritizing my time for what truly aligns with my values, brought back so much joy and peace in my life.

3. Perfectionism

• Why It’s Harmful: Perfectionism is a myth. The sooner we can accept that fact the happier we can be. Striving for perfection is exhausting and often unattainable, leading to frustration and low self-confidence.
• How to Let Go: Being the overt perfectionist I was and realizing how unhappy it was making me, I slowly focused on progress instead of perfection. I made it a point to celebrate small wins and acknowledge my effort over perfect outcomes. As I kept doing this consciously, it got easier to let go of this for perfectionism.

4. Negative Self-Talk

• Why It’s Harmful: “I am such a loser.” “I look horrible today.” “I am not good enough.” Was the inner chatter my unhealed self used to have on repeat in my head. Being overly critical of yourself fosters low self-esteem and anxiety.
• How to Let Go: Simple acts of self-compassion on repeat was what worked for me to let this habit go. I used(and still use) affirmations to replace negative thoughts with positive, loving, and nurturing ones.

5. Procrastination

• Why It’s Harmful: “I’ll do this tomorrow” “I’ll do this later” “Not now. Just wait five minutes” Sound familiar? Delaying important tasks creates unnecessary stress and guilt later. This is a hard one to beat in the world we live in because there are so many distractions. Go watch one reel/shorts and then hours go by…wasted, simply because I was avoiding a task.
• How to Let Go: The biggest helpful habit I used and still use to beat procrastination is to visualize and feel the feeling I will have once the task is done. Like if I need to do the laundry, I will visualize all the laundry smelling fresh and all neatly put away. Another way is to break big tasks into small manageable steps. I also use tools like the Pomodoro Technique to improve focus, where I set a timer for 20 minutes to do a task like studying or writing and do nothing else in between that.

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Letting go of these habits is not always easy, but the freedom and inner peace gained from shedding them make the effort worthwhile. What specific habits resonate with you?

The more YOU that you can be, the more confident and peaceful you’ll feel.

Inner peace is priceless ❤️

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_{1st Photo by Chu Chup Hinh on Pexels.com, 2nd background Photo by Guilherme Stecanella on Unsplash}