Keep at It!

I Have A Confession To Make.

I don’t always take my own advice.  I stay up too late. I drink too much alcohol from time to time and too much coffee regularly. I stress eat. I give in to road rage and yell at fellow drivers from the confines of my car.  I wake up paralyzed by this feeling of overwhelm that the to-do list is too long, and I don’t really know what I’m doing with my life, and the problems of the world are just too big and insurmountable, and what the hell did that dream about my dead cat really mean, and and and….

I forget to breath deeply. I forget to breath at all. 

I beat myself up over it.

But then I remember. 

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This stuff is a practice. We don’t really “arrive” at a place and then just stop. Life, nature, the universe – it’s all in constant flux. Even if our naked eye can’t see, there’s always movement going on. It’s quite remarkable. I’m not making this stuff up! Google quantum physics and get back to me on what you discover. 

Just when we think we’ve got it all figured out, life inevitably changes. It can be as little as a new barista at our favorite coffee shop, to losing a job, or a loved one passing.  Either way, we’re forced to shift and adapt even if we choose to throw a mini tantrum about it. We don’t really have a choice.

Change is the only guarantee that’s out there really. And quite frankly it’s freakin’ uncomfortable at times.

So here’s the key to getting through that uncomfortable stuff: We keep at it even when it feels crappy. 

Even when we’re tired, and we know we’ve eaten too many chocolates, and we were a jerk to the grocery store checkout guy because we’ve had a long day, and we just want to get home to eat that frozen pizza we know is going to give us heartburn but we’re gonna eat it anyway…

We. Keep. At. It.

We keep loving ourselves by sticking to whatever practices we know help us stay connected to ourselves. We accept ourselves fully, right at that moment. We remember that nothing is inherently “good” or “bad”, and we stop beating ourselves up over “messing up”. 

If you’ve ever taken a yoga or meditation class from me, you’ve probably heard me say, “if the mind wanders, bring it back”. This is very much applicable to life in general. We forget who we truly are sometimes and that’s OK. We just lovingly remind ourselves again and again. It’s all a practice, and we don’t need to arrive anywhere specific. We just need to keep at it.

Slowly, as we continue to do this, we start to see changes in the way we respond to life. The way our brain functions changes, and we are able to show up to the shifts of life more fully, and adapt with a little more grace.

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So consider this your loving kick in the butt to keep at it. Even if the work you do doesn’t feel like your best. Keep at it. Even if it’s only for a few minutes a day because that’s all you have the time and energy for. Keep at it. Keep loving on yourself. You deserve it. 

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