“Learn to be calm and you will always be happy.”

– Paramhansa Yogananda

These are certainly wise words from Indian monk, yogi and guru Paramhansa Yogananda on the relationship between being calm and being happy..

A sense of calm can be particularly fleeting for busy small business owners. It feels like there’s always something happening that is trying to pull you into chaos, busy-ness and low-key anarchy! From difficult clients and unpaid bills to the never-ending to-do list and the inevitable family dramas that seem to pop up in the least convenient moments – it can be hard to even imagine what calm feels like, let alone actually feel it!

Even beyond business, the world that we live in today isn’t particularly conducive to cultivating or maintaining a state of calm. We are bombarded everyday with hundreds of thousands of pieces of information all vying for our attention. Our lives outside of work more often than not are busy and full to overflowing, it’s no wonder calm feels out of reach!

But have you noticed that when you are calm you are more able to feel happy and in the moment? 

Do you know someone who appears to have it all together and seems to somehow embody the energy of calm?

Do you wish that was you? Able to stay centred even when it seems like life is doing everything it can to throw you off balance? 

While some of us are energetically wired to be more chilled out we can all learn strategies and techniques to help us feel more at ease more often, opening the door to increased happiness and joy. But how do we foster this kind of calmness?

As with any change, we must start by becoming aware of the things in our work and life that rob us of calm, as well as increasing our awareness of what brings us calm. Then it becomes a matter of consciously and consistently choosing one over the other.

Some habits that can help you cultivate more calm are:

– letting go of expectations: when we can just accept life as it comes to us without having expectations that things will happen a certain way we don’t create undue stress trying to control people or outcomes.

– decluttering: creating space in our home, workspace, calendar and inbox by removing the excess or the unnecessary frees us up to focus on and enjoy the truly important things.

– meditation: perfect for calming the mind and getting in touch with our master self.

– expressing gratitude: a great way to keep our mind focused on our blessings rather than stresses.

– a big picture view: when we can easily put things into perspective we don’t let stuff that doesn’t really matter disrupt our peace.

These are habits that will require intention and practice before you experience the calm that you seek consistently. This means that your commitment to bringing more peace into your business and life must be strong enough to override any initial feelings of frustration, discomfort or pressure to do other things.  You’ll need a firm resolve to keep choosing calm over chaos, knowing that the reward for your persistence is more joy and happiness. 

What are your own strategies for staying calm? If you’d like to develop more, or work on your commitment to choosing calm book a free Intro Call and find out if we can help!

Until next time,