Background Inner peace is a state of mind that is free from suffering. Despite facing life-limiting diseases, it is still possible for patients to experience moments of inner peace in the midst of their pain and illnesses. The authors conduct this study to find out these moments of inner peace and the various paths eading to inner peace in palliative care patients.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to (1) understand the types of inner peace in palliative care patients, to (2) understand the paths leading to inner peace in palliative care patients and to (3) construct a theory of inner peace in palliative care patients.

Method Grounded theory is used in gathering, synthesising, analysing and conceptualising the data to achieve the above purpose.

Results Regarding the types of inner peace, the study reveals four categories: (1) physical peace, (2) psychological peace, (3) social peace and (4) spiritual peace. Regarding the paths leading to inner peace, six categories are revealed: (1) self awareness, (2) positive thought, (3) positive emotion, (4) positive behaviour, (5) positive attitude and (6) self regulation.

Conclusion The former categorisation of the types of inner peace enables us to understand inner peace in a systematic manner. It helps clinician in recognising the types of inner peace in patients. The latter categorisation gives us a deeper understanding of the various paths leading to inner peace. It provides a guide in developing various mechanism-based approaches that help patients to achieve inner peace. From these two findings, the authors construct a model of inner peace that can be generalised to all patients in the field of medicine. This model of inner peace can help clinician to facilitate patients in achieving inner peace in spite of their illnesses.