Just Keep Swimming

In my last blog I suggested the idea of taking up a positive habit during Lent. I decided that mine would be to meditate every day. Meditation is something that I know is so good for me, but I never seem to find time for it. Taking up meditation for Lent seemed like a great way to start making a habit of it. I joined the Chopra Center 21-Day Challenge so I get a daily meditation sent to my email and I’ve been doing great so far.

The problem is that our family is going out-of-town for Spring Break this week and I know it will be impossible for me to meditate every day while we are traveling. So do I just give up? No! I have decided to give myself permission to be flexible with my goal. I will try to find a few minutes every day to close my eyes and calm my mind, but I won’t beat myself up if I go several days without meditating. I will just come back to it when our trip is over. This is exactly what we are taught to do when meditating. If your mind wanders all you have to do is gently bring it back to your breathing. It doesn’t matter how many times your thoughts interrupt you. You just keep coming back.

We can be so hard on ourselves when we fail to stick with something. We set goals, but life gets in the way and we don’t do what we said we were going to do. This happens to us all and it’s OK! Instead of beating ourselves up and giving up, we need to forgive ourselves and stop being so self-critical. All that matters is to start moving toward our goal again. It reminds me of Dory in “Finding Nemo”. As they were searching for Nemo she stayed positive (probably because her lack of memory kept her from dwelling on past problems, but that’s another blog) and kept repeating “just keep swimming”. So if you fall off course, don’t use that as an excuse to give up. Just keep swimming!