Born to Be a Peace Finder
Lessons From the Tranquil
Life today moves with the frenzied pace of a jazz drummer who’s had one too many Red Bulls and is trying to keep up with a techno remix. (Whoa. Hold up. I have to take a breath.)
Between the endless notifications, the perpetual hustle culture, and that voice in your head that sounds suspiciously like a hyped-up life coach screaming “OPTIMIZE EVERYTHING,” finding peace can feel like trying to do yoga in a bounce house.
While developing this stamp, I found myself reflecting on the various forms of peace and how we can uncover them in places, familiar and foreign. Peace can be both fleeting and profound, but above all, it is something that must be protected.
With its many manifestations, it was challenging to find a focus for this stamp and, subsequently, this post. So I’ll touch on some places and ways that work for me. Don’t fret, I’ve made peace with the ones I had to let float by.
Being a Peace Finder
I could have gone with calling this stamp “peace stumble-uponer” because some of our most impactful peaceful moments sneak up on us like plot twists in a good werewolf cozy mystery. But there’s something beautifully intentional about being a Peace Finder. It suggests we’re not just passive recipients of calm moments, but active seekers, detectives of our own serenity.
If this stamp fits you, you likely discover beauty in stillness and simplicity. You have this incredible gift for finding tranquil spaces that others might overlook—that perfect park bench, the library corner, or that hiking trail that everyone else rushes past. All places that you know hold the promise of calm.
You trust that the right place matters more than forcing yourself through difficult experiences. While others are white-knuckling their way through challenging adventures, you’re the one finding places that encourage reflection and presence.
While peacemakers make natural Peace Finders, what I love about this stamp is that it shows peace is not some mystical state reserved for monks on mountaintops or people who somehow have their lives together enough to wake up at 5 AM for meditation (bless their organized souls). Peace is plucky, adaptable, and surprisingly resourceful. It can show up in the most unexpected places, like that friend who crashes on your couch uninvited but somehow makes you feel better.
The Peace Finder stamp is part of the Growth & Transformation pillar. For more information about the framework, see THIS POST.
Not sure if you are a Peace Finder? Find YOUR Places Stamp HERE.
Want more Peace Finder basics? See HERE.
Download the Peace Finder Planner & Journal at the bottom of the post.
If you’re reading this and nodding along, chances are you’re a Peace Finder. You’re the person who gravitates toward quiet, peaceful places while others are chasing the next adrenaline rush. You seek out serenity! Quiet beaches, serene mountains, and peaceful retreats call to you like a gentle invitation.
You want to escape the noise of modern life and find inner calm. While others crave excitement and action, you seek out the quiet moments and spots where you can actually hear yourself think. Your ideal place leaves you feeling centered and serene, not drained and overstimulated.
You’re drawn to calm spaces where you can just be.
Your Peaceful Side Deserves Its Place in YOUR Places
Peace isn’t just one thing. It’s gazing out at the ocean AND that perfectly timed text from a friend. It’s cathedral silence AND the chaotic laughter of a family dinner. It’s the earned exhaustion after a challenging hike AND the soft surrender of sinking into clean sheets.
Let’s explore ways to choose activities that promote inner peace without apologizing for it. How can we all get better at picking places that slow us down—not because we’re boring (please!), but because we understand that the best discoveries happen when we stop rushing. These are the places where you recharge, where your nervous system finally gets to exhale and remember what it feels like to not be constantly scanning for threats or opportunities.
As a therapist, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the importance of being trauma-informed—especially about yourself. I’m grateful to see more places, events, movies, and novels sharing content warnings. In this, we have the chance to protect our peace.
Holding onto and protecting our peace is just as important as finding it.
Peace Comes in Many Flavors
Here are four ways that peace has woven its way into my life, and perhaps yours, too.
Sensory Peace
Picture this: You’re in a lavender field somewhere in Provence (or that charming lavender farm an hour outside of town, equally magical). The purple rows stretch endlessly, the air is thick with that distinctive scent that makes your shoulders drop two inches, and for a moment, the world stops its relentless spinning.
Now fast-forward to three months later. You’re in an airplane that feels like a sardine can, complete with a crying baby and the person behind you who seems to think your seat is a punching bag. But then, you dab that little vial of lavender oil on your wrists, close your eyes, and suddenly you’re back in those purple rows. Your nervous system doesn’t care that you’re 30,000 feet above land; it remembers peace.
This is the magic of sensory peace-finding. Our bodies are walking archives of calm moments, and sometimes we just need to know which buttons to push. Essential oils are like the greatest hits album of peaceful experiences—magnolia for that garden party where you laughed until your cheeks hurt, eucalyptus for that spa day when you finally let yourself have nice things, peppermint for that mountain hike where you felt invincible.
If you don’t have a few go-to scents that transport you back to calmer memories, consider gathering your own collection.
Sure, there are scents marketed to evoke calm feelings, but I find some have a triggering effect that can send me into a tailspin. Anything rose-scented and I’m NOT in a calm place, instead back in a childhood experience I haven’t fully processed.
But I digress.
My point is that knowing the smells, sounds, textures—any sense really—that trigger you and can be avoided are just as powerful as those we intentionally bring into our lives.
Earned Peace
Some people find their deepest calm through physical or mental exertion. These are the marathon runners who discover zen at mile 20, the rock climbers who find their center on a cliff face, and the yoga gals who flow through multiple sun salutations before melting into child’s pose. For them, peace feels more meaningful when it follows effort.
I used to prescribe to this approach completely. There’s a satisfying symmetry to working your body or mind hard and then experiencing the calm that follows. Perhaps this is age talking, but I’ve cut back on earning peace through the struggle of heightened experiences. Sometimes my most radical act is choosing ease when everything around me suggests I should be pushing harder.
So I offer to you, and as a reminder to myself: peace doesn’t require a prerequisite of suffering. It can be accessed directly through whatever brings you genuine joy, regardless of your energy level.
Now, don’t get me wrong, a calm soul doesn’t necessarily mean lowered blood pressure or complete stillness. Your peace might be found when dancing in the kitchen, in meaningful conversation, or organizing your closet. The key is honoring what actually restores you, whether that’s challenge followed by rest or simply choosing the path of least resistance when life already feels overwhelming.
Both paths are completely valid. The goal isn’t to force yourself into someone else’s definition of peace, but to discover what truly works for your unique nervous system and life circumstances. Peace is personal.
Collective Peace
Then there’s the peace that comes not from solitude, but from togetherness. You know this one. It’s that moment when you look around a holiday table and realize, miraculously, everyone you love is in one place. This collective exhale, this shared “we made it” feeling, is its own kind of peace. You show up for these moments with your whole heart. I’m still brimming with this peaceful recharge after a wonderful week with my family in the San Juan Islands.
Consider planning get-togethers in places that evoke togetherness as a way to ease worries and rekindle your knowing that you are not alone in this world. It’s a powerful form of peace.
Healing Peace
Some peace comes with the specific intention to heal. These are places that encourage reflection and presence, spaces that seem to understand that sometimes we need to be held while we process, grieve, celebrate, or simply be without having to explain.
Think about the last time you visited a place that moved you to tears—not from sadness, but from recognition, from feeling deeply seen. Maybe it was a memorial that honored loss with dignity, an art exhibit that captured something you couldn’t put into words, or even a dark movie theatre where you wiped away satisfying tears.
While this may seem unconventional, I find some of the most emotionally evocative museums, exhibits, and stories offer this kind of healing peace. This curiosity sent me into research about the ethics and training around trauma-informed museum practices. Museum educator Lindsey Steward-Goldberg notes that museums have a responsibility to approach visitors “with compassion, mindfulness, and skilled responses,” creating safe spaces to explore difficult topics while honoring both the visitor’s experience and the subject matter being presented.
I sure appreciate knowing this. It can be a way for us to discover that healing and peace can coexist. We learn that we don’t have to compartmentalize our experiences or wait until we’re “better” to feel peace.
This week, consider seeking out a place specifically designed for reflection. Pay attention to what elements make you feel safe to experience whatever emotions arise. Peace isn’t just about feeling better; sometimes it’s about feeling everything, safely held.
Sacred Spaces and Unexpected Sanctuaries
I hope these four “peace places” demonstrate that peace has interesting real estate preferences. Sometimes it lives in obvious places: cathedrals with their soaring ceilings, or those mountain vista points. But peace is also surprisingly democratic. It sets up shop in unexpected places: that grocery store produce section surrounded by perfectly arranged vegetables, a laundromat watching clothes tumble with a meditative hum, the parking garage rooftop looking out over the city.
Expand your Peace Finder ways by recognizing these places. Sanctuary can be found almost anywhere.
Your Peace Practice
Being a Peace Finder is a skill that gets better with practice. The more you pay attention to what actually calms your nervous system, the better you become at curating your own peace portfolio.
Maybe your peace is found in:
The weight of a cat on your lap (universal peace technology)
The rhythm of your feet on a familiar trail
The specific slant of afternoon light in your favorite reading spot
The sound of rain on your roof while you’re safely inside
The moment when you finally understand something you’ve been reflecting on
The familiar ritual of making your morning coffee exactly the way you like it
The satisfaction of finding the perfect park bench with the perfect view
The key is noticing these moments, collecting them like rare treasures, and learning to recognize the conditions that create them.
So here’s my challenge to you, fellow Peace Finder: Think outside the box about how and where you find peace.
Maybe it’s not in the obvious places. Maybe your cathedral is a late-night diner where the coffee is terrible but the solitude is perfect. Maybe your meditation practice happens while folding laundry or walking the dog or sitting in your car for five extra minutes before going into a social event.
Protect your peace. Hold tight to those boundaries you set to preserve your calm.
Recognize that it can be fleeting. Those perfect moments that you may not control but can learn to notice.
Appreciate that it can be profound. Those experiences that fundamentally shift how you see the world.
Where will you go looking for peace today? What quiet corner will you discover? What sunrise will you witness? What wildflowers will you pause to enjoy?
Remember: you’re driven by sanctuary, harmony, and healing. These are necessities. In a world that profits from your anxiety, choose peace. Every time you pause, breathe, and remember what centers you, you’re not just finding peace, you’re creating it, modeling it, making it available for others to discover too.
The world needs more Peace Finders. The world needs more people who understand that serenity isn’t selfish. It’s a service.
Now go forth and find your sanctuary. The quiet places are waiting for you!
Dear Peace Finders,
Thank you for bringing peace to others. When you’ve done the work of understanding what centers you, you start showing up differently in the world. You become the friend who can sit with someone’s hurt without trying to fix it, the colleague who doesn’t add to the office chaos, the family member who brings calm instead of drama to gatherings.
Thank you for being our human tuning forks. Continue to help us calibrate to your emotional frequency. You remind us that there’s another way to move through the world, one that doesn’t require constant urgency and stress as fuel. You understand that sometimes the best moments happen when you slow down enough to feel them. You understand that the right environment can be medicine, that certain places have the power to recalibrate our entire being.
While others are trying to cram as much experience as possible into their time off, you’re choosing quality over quantity, depth over breadth. You’re proving that it’s possible to be productive by being still, to be adventurous by being present, to be fulfilled by being peaceful.
With peaceful intentions and a grateful heart,
Natalie
P.S. - If you discover peace in an unexpected place this week, I’d love to hear about it. Because the best peace-finding tips are the ones we share with each other.
I'm a sensory peace finder or maybe I should say creator. I have a secret corner in my garden that is my place of peace. I spend all winter planning and designing it with colors, scents, and comfort in mind. It's a place I can go for reflection, prayer, or just getting away from the noise. Thank you for this post.