Happy Friday!
And welcome to today’s edition of ‘Conscious living with Purnima’. Today, I talk about ways to train your mind to not consider detours as something that impedes your progress but as something that is inevitable as well as essential on your journey to experience real transformation.
Do let me know if you relate.
Oftentimes we set intentions for ourselves and are diligent to carry out the actions that align with our intentions. But there are occasions we slip. Our response to these slips can be crucial in directing our course forward. Today, I will share mindset shifts that can help you deal with going off track your intended path.
1. Recognize that you have slipped or are slipping:
May seem obvious, but sooner you realize that you have slipped, easier it will be to redirect yourself back on the path. It’s easier said than done, especially if you don’t have a system or a process that helps you know this.
Strategy you can use:
If something is really important to you then ensure you create a daily check-in system where you can ask yourself a few questions. For instance, I shared with you how my intention for the upcoming Year is to manage my focus & listen to my inner voice. So, an effective daily check-in question for me, would be to ask myself, “In what ways did I let my attention squander or if anything caused me to not heed my inner voice?”. Asking this question on a regular basis will help me understand when I am moving away from my heart intentions.
You too can craft some questions to check-in with yourself if you are moving away from your intended path.
2. Recognize that slipping is part of the process:
Losing & finding yourself is part of the journey. The only thing that’s important is that you stay aware of times when you lose yourself. This reminder can help you maintain a positive frame of mind.
Strategy you can use:
This is more from a mindset perspective. Remind yourself of your humaneness and get into the habit of giving yourself grace & forgiveness. Whenever I have veered away from my intentions, and I recognize this, I allow my mind to first quieten with meditation. I find that reflection and analysis at the first sight of recognizing the slip only gets me mentally agitated. Quietening the mind is the best strategy that I have found. You can try it out too.
Once the mind is not disturbed you can journal your experience and strategize a way forward.
3. Allow Slips:
You don’t need to constantly guard yourself from going off track. Doing that will prevent you from living spontaneously.
Strategy you can use:
Apart from a scheduled time for reflection (ensure you do not miss this conversation with yourself), allow things to flow, embracing all of the mistakes and detours you end up taking from your ideal path.
I will conclude today's post, the last one for this year, with a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson for your reflection.
Write it on your heart by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Good one Puri