I hear people tell me, “I can’t take it anymore!” a lot these days. Sometimes, I hear that phrase in my own head.
This pandemic has surely stretched us all to the limit.
If you are beating yourself up because you have not met the performance goals you worked so hard to achieve or, in a moment of exhaustion, yelled at your child, spouse, friend, lover, pet, colleague, or stranger, then I’m going to encourage you to forgive yourself.
We are all human and doing the best we can under very difficult circumstances.
Maybe you don’t need to be concerned about paying rent, a mortgage, health insurance bills, school tuition, or myriad of other critically important needs, but many people do. I invite you to do what you can, when you can, for others.
And if now, possibly for the first time in your entire life, you have to focus on yourself, then please do what is best for you.
One of the attitudes we cultivate with a Mindfulness practice is “Non-Striving.” That does not mean giving up. Non-Striving allows us to pause and notice our desire to want to make things go our way, instead of allowing them to be just as they are.
Yes, this pandemic will one day come to an end—history has surely shown us this. And, in the meantime, we will do what we can do right now.
We can cultivate patience.
We can curse the thorns, or we can appreciate the rose.
(by Harriet Stein)
I resist
Change.
Even knowing that what may come may be far greater a gift.
My hands are up.
My mind shut tight.
My heart frozen.
And then in the stillness
A crack.
A quiet unleashing of possibility.
My hands slowly,
Cautiously,
Chose to come down.
My mind decides to open to
Awareness.
My heart no longer pounding
Just silently beating.
Soon I realize
I am no longer resisting.
The peace
Quickly flows in and
Fills the space.
Soothing
My once frozen
Heart.
Above Photo credit: julie mueller
Provide a life-changing program for your employees and create a healthier more collaborative and engaged workplace.