Dear Diary,<\/p>\n
All of us, at one point or another, lost hope.\u00a0 I wrote earlier, “Hope is the mechanism for meaning.”\u00a0 By losing hope, we destroyed or no longer invested in the meaning of ourselves and the situation.\u00a0 We devolved back into basic survival strategies.\u00a0 We floated through the day, finding ways to mitigate or ignore the sources of pain causing us harm.\u00a0 Deep down, we wanted the sources of pain to cease but we lost the will to take care of it ourselves.\u00a0 We endure until we run out of patience, and then we become reactive to the same sources of pain, be it anger, sadness, or self-harm.\u00a0 Patience without action is suffering, but we lose the ability to stop suffering.<\/p>\n
Why is it we fail to take immediate and decisive action?\u00a0 The hope for a positive outcome was lost; we fell flat while reaching up for beneficial change because we didn’t believe we could succeed.\u00a0 Failure begins to compound on itself until we no longer trust our ability to accomplish our goals.\u00a0 We focus almost exclusively on our failures and lose our sense of self-worth.\u00a0 Combined with more self-doubt than self-trust,\u00a0 our lack of worth becomes our stuck point.\u00a0 We convince ourselves that a better tomorrow is impossible and succeed in fulfilling our prophecy.<\/p>\n
The question becomes: “how can I trust myself again?”\u00a0 After all, trust once lost is difficult to re-obtain.\u00a0 Trust is like a brand or reputation; we invest in them from a pattern of results.\u00a0 When what we see is a pattern of pain and failure, we typically choose not to invest in it, even if we’re looking inwardly.\u00a0 Change is often uncomfortable.\u00a0 We tread into something new, not knowing how the result will play out.\u00a0 However, change is the only path forward when the status quo is a lack of self-trust, a lack of self-worth, and a loss of hope.<\/p>\n
To start the change process, be ok with what you can’t do because there is a lot you can do.\u00a0 Re-frame your goals into smaller, more manageable chunks to start to build back a pattern of success.\u00a0 All big things are comprised of smaller things, and by accomplishing little things, we take steps forward along our grand journey.\u00a0 It isn’t uncommon to fail to grasp one’s progress until we stop to look at where we are compared to where we were.\u00a0 However, gaining such a perspective requires us to stop, rest, and reflect.<\/p>\n
When we spend the bulk of our energy trying to protect ourselves from the sources of pain,\u00a0 we become exhausted over time.\u00a0 The truth is that it doesn’t matter how much time we have if we don’t have the energy to do anything.\u00a0 Exhaustion robs us of our ability to think more clearly and to be proactive meaningfully.\u00a0 We have to learn to rest, even though it may feel counter-intuitive.\u00a0 What we see is all the work left to be done and feel pressured to keep trying.\u00a0 However, we will continue to fail as we don’t have the energy, the strength, to succeed.\u00a0 We used our well of patience and are now overstimulated.\u00a0 We must rest to move forward.<\/p>\n
Rest does not automatically imply doing nothing.\u00a0 It is ok to put more space between tasks, akin to how space between cars allows for smooth traffic.\u00a0 When we have insufficient room between jobs, we become overwhelmed and make more mistakes.\u00a0 The space and speed of how we go about life will vary from person to person but find a pace that is sustainable for you.\u00a0 The periods in between are for rest.\u00a0 We commonly think about rest as physical relaxation, which is important, but mental and emotional rest are just as critical.\u00a0 If our heart isn’t invested in the task at hand, it doesn’t matter how good our body feels.\u00a0 Over time we changed society to where we have something in our face stimulating us constantly – emails, cell phone notifications, etc.\u00a0 This pace of bouncing from one source of stimulation to the next never gives us time to breathe, heal, daydream, and enjoy being present in the moment.\u00a0 Managing our rest gives us the time and space to live in the now.<\/p>\n
By successfully managing our rest and our pace of work, we give ourselves the tools to make a better pattern. \u00a0Healing is not linear, so when we encounter setbacks, we must resist the temptation to give up again.\u00a0 Over time, our positive practice will begin to replenish the self-trust we lost along the way.\u00a0 With a measure of self-trust, we can start to create larger goals or take some risks.\u00a0 With smaller, more incremental, successes our trust in ourselves pays off in the form of self-worth.\u00a0 With self-worth, we have a source of strength from which to draw to tackle the sources of pain.\u00a0\u00a0 We begin to hope for beneficial change; we give ourselves a new sense of purpose and meaning.\u00a0 Hope carries us through the setbacks until we find resolution with the sources of pain. \u00a0Patience has a limit, so don’t give on yourself, be defiantly hopeful.\u00a0 Stop suffering by investing in yourself through action.\u00a0 You are worth it.<\/p>\n
1 Dec 2021 | Monk Anchorwind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Diary, All of us, at one point or another, lost hope.\u00a0 I wrote earlier, “Hope is the mechanism for meaning.”\u00a0 By losing hope, we destroyed or no longer invested in the meaning of ourselves and the situation.\u00a0 We devolved back into basic survival strategies.\u00a0 We floated through the day, finding ways to mitigate or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304,337],"tags":[307,168,330],"class_list":["post-28131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-307","tag-hope","tag-rest"],"yoast_head":"\n