Last week I gave you all a homework assignment – to do a little more of what you love.
I want to hear how that went for you, so if you didn’t get a chance last week, go ahead and reply to this one and tell me your experience. You can do this via social media @interiorradiance or by commenting below.
Here’s the funny thing about doing a “little” more of what you love. It’s actually really hard. Sometimes when I do this exercise with a client, they find that it’s more challenging to make small shifts over and over and over than it is to make a big shift ONCE.
Why is that?
I think it’s because the things we want – happiness, meaning, peace – aren’t situational, they’re skills. Gratitude is a skill, mindfulness is a skill, even enlightenment is a skill!
There’s a great article that talks about the difference between what our minds understand and what we actually are able to do. For example, you might understand meditation, and love the concept, and know a lot about Buddhist principles and want to apply them to your life. But if meditation or being mindful isn’t a skill that you have learned, you won’t be able to internalize the benefit of all those amazing principles. Your mind might, but your behaviors, body and soul won’t.
It’s like the difference between reading about the benefits or water and thinking it’s great to drink water… and actually drinking 10 glasses of water a day. Nothing, nothing, nothing can give you the benefits of those glasses of water if you don’t just drink the damn water.
When I tell my clients to practice gratitude, they hear “gratitude is great”
When I tell my clients to practice yoga, they hear “yoga is great”
When I tell my clients to practice mindfulness, they hear “mindfulness is great”
When I tell my clients to practice self-compassion…you get my point!
Here’s what I want them to hear: practice.
If you meditate for ten minutes every day, I promise you that your life will look very different in sixty days. Same with yoga, same with keeping a gratitude journal, same with your relationship to god, etc.
Half the battle is practice.
So, what are you waiting for?
