By Fiction and Nonfiction Books Writer Denise Turney

Peace is the sweetest experience. It’s freedom from irritation. It is a state lacking fear. When you’re living in peace, if someone asks you what you’re eager to change, your mind might go blank, as if searching for a past instance of discontent.

Sweetness of Peace

Although it seems impossible, you could live in peace forever. Once you enter a state of peace, disappointments and challenges aren’t at the front of your thoughts. Talk about a sweet experience.

But how can you remain in peace once your mind allows you to get there? Work and home are good places to start. However, it takes more than wishing, hoping and ruminating about peace. Instead of engaging in these habits, make living in peace your aim.

Shift morning routines. Instead of rushing into the bathroom when you wake, raise your hands, smile and say “thank you” or another favorite phrase. Less than five seconds is all it takes. Another way to shift in the morning is to stretch. Speaking a positive affirmation while doing two to three minutes of rigorous cardio changes physiology, moving you away from worry.

About Peaceful Relationships

You’ll also benefit from incorporating shifts into work routines, especially if you work outside your home. Goal is to do what steers you away from fear and into peace. For example, instead of lunching with people who gossip, you might decide to eat healthy food at midday and enjoy a walk afterward.

That or you might enjoy lunch with friends who don’t gossip or attack others verbally. This is important because what you see people do to others, you might fear that they can (or do) do to you when you’re not physically with them.

With peace as your goal, you may become more aware of what jabs at your inner peace.

Easy Peaceful Paths

During a relationship break for me, I had to learn to forgive so that I could “let go” of past perceived wrongs and move into peace. This was no quick fix. It took me years to pull this off. Yet, my aim remained unchanged. Had I not chosen forgiveness, my home life would not have been peaceful.

Quicker peaceful paths center around finances. Little causes fear and worry like money problems. Just as I did with the broken relationship, peace must be your overall goal. For example, you could:

• Pay down high interest loans
• Bring credit card debt to zero
• Curb spending
• Build and stick to a budget

Even more, consider reducing the time people attracted to chaos spend in your home. Relatives and friends who love drama, including fights, can drive you into unease. As you get accustomed to living in peace at home, you and your family could start to protect that peace.

Getting to Peace at Work

Engaging in relaxing activities at home is another way to dwell in peace. Soaking in a warm bubble bath, reading a good book, doing yoga, meditating, working in your garden and sleeping deeply at night are more ways to relax at home.

Extending peace at home to work takes commitment. Why? At work, there might be hundreds or thousands of colleagues you cross paths with, each having different energy.

How to work in peace with so many people? Commit to your goal to live in peace. Recall advantages peace has brought you. Among those advantages might be lower blood pressure, better sleep, healthier weight, improved energy and better mental balance.

Also, pay attention to how you feel about work in general as well as the work that you’re currently doing. Notice if colleagues are showing signs of burnout and stress. If so, you could be working in a toxic environment. Steer clear of thinking that this is all in your head if other people are being affected.

Toxic Work Environment Challenges to Peace

In fact, if you’ve worked 10 years, you might have worked in a toxic environment at least once. That toxicity could come through the words or actions of a poor manager, a bullying colleague, lack of clarity from senior management, long work hours and stressful project demands.

Acknowledge what is happening. Don’t sugarcoat it or think that it will magically go away. Recall your goal to live in peace. Consider whether the path to peace at work might come through speaking with a colleague, human resources or a manager about workplace challenges.

Pray for guidance. Be open to stepping into a different role at work or even exiting the organization and working elsewhere. Depending on what is going on in your life, you might leave the organization and take time to be still for several weeks without working anywhere. Of course, ensure that your finances allow for this option.

You could also accept that, regardless of where you work, there may be times when you feel stressed on the job. But this stress shouldn’t go on endlessly. Additionally, there might always be one or more people who you don’t feel completely in sync with at work. Hence, don’t run from challenges.

Open Yourself Up to Better Peace Options

Instead, spot stressful patterns at work (i.e., aggressive emails, put downs cloaked as jokes), seek guidance and keep peace as your aim. Definitely, steer clear of convincing yourself that if you leave a toxic workplace, you can never work again. Because that is not true.

If you convince yourself that you must stay in a toxic work environment, you might feel bound – stuck. That by itself could produce stress. It could find you feeling trapped, which could, in turn, could cause you to become toxic, at work and at home.

To avoid believing the lie that you’re out of work choices, research work from home jobs, remote jobs and employers in industries you want to work in. Look though online job sites like Indeed, Career Builder and Journalism Jobs and set up job alerts.

Moving Into Peace

Show yourself that you have options. You have options at work, and you have options at home. Consider interviewing one to two times a year. Do this even if you love your current job.

This could keep you from being deceived that you could never gain a better job. Do the same with relationships. Stay in touch with loving family and friends. Stay away from isolating yourself. Create environments that prove, that show you, that you have choices and that you can change and move from chaos into peace.