photo by Nicole Glass
How lovely and lucky it is when we find something, anything to help us feel better. Whether it’s your morning smoothie, meditation, or exercise, there are endless things to try in our attempt and in our stubborn mission to find and keep peace of mind aka happiness. There are tools and exercises we can do that make it easier for our brain to create those happy chemicals. So why not do them? Right?
The thing is, humans are cyclical and constantly changing and to some of us a lack of consistency tells us we are bad or somehow inferior. We are letting ourselves down by not doing the very things we KNOW make us feel better. This whole thought process only adds to the pain.
Can we all promise ourselves NOW that if we aren’t perfectly consistent, we will let it be okay? Let’s promise to allow ourselves to stray from our routines, and then thoughtfully and patiently guide ourselves back to our centering practices.
I’ve been becoming much more graceful in my transition back into routine and have been shedding the self-blame and negative mental chatter. Let me tell ya it feels REALLY good. For a long time I would be so hard on myself on days when I didn’t meditate twice (hey, TM!) and also walk 10k steps and also journal and also eat perfectly and also answer all my emails…. Like, RELAX, past me! It seemed like all the healthy things I was doing had an equally unhealthy component of internal shame and stress when I fell short.
I just catch myself more and more, quicker and quicker, so now I can just enjoy my life whether I’ve meditated that day or not! I’ve removed the qualifications a day has to meet in order to be “good”. I feel like I discovered a big secret to life here - collect as many selfhelp tools as you can and then NEVER feel guilty for not using them.
What’s your favorite selfhelp tool? Have you ever felt guilty for skipping it?
Be in touch!