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Learn to move forward in the face of setbacks
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When the pandemic hit, my employer’s response was immediate. We were all sent home to teach our courses. For those that don’t know, I teach at a post-secondary polytechnic in Canada. I spent the final 6 weeks of the semester sitting in a kitchen chair, broadcasting lessons from my laptop. And, I was promptly hit with a bout of sciatica caused by sitting in a non-ergonomic position for hours a day, days on end. 10 months and lots of physical therapy later, and I’m still experiencing pain. Worst of all, I went from working out three days a week to being barely able to hobble around the block.
My physiotherapist says I’m at a point where I need to start strength training again and I did my first workout yesterday. And, it was awful. It was so incredibly disappointing to see how far I’d backtracked. Less than a year ago, I could do back squats with 60 pounds of weight and I could deadlift 100 pounds. Yesterday, I could barely manage 10 reps of glute bridges which is a basic bodyweight exercise with no added weights. I wanted to cry.
But I took a deep breath in and reminded myself to just “start where you are.”
Before I tell you more about starting where you are, I have a quick announcement. I’ve just launched a new course called Build a Mindfulness Habit designed to help you turn your meditation practice into a habit. And I’m really excited about it. You probably know that habit-building is my thing. It comes from my experience as a meditation teacher. I’ve observed that, for many people, making sure they practice regularly enough is the single biggest obstacle they face when learning to meditate. And, if you don’t practice regularly, you don’t get all the physical, mental, and emotional health benefits.
The solution to this problem is simple: turn meditation into a habit. Then, when it’s time to meditate, you don’t hesitate, you don’t have any decisions to make, and you don’t fight with yourself over whether to meditate or not. You just do it. Automatically. Effortlessly. So, the new course walks you through building a meditation habit, step by step. And, along the way, you’ll learn to manage the other common obstacles to practice: boredom, restlessness, busy mind and much more. For details, pop over to mindful15.com. You’ll see the courses link at the top of the page.
Alright, so there I am, ready to cry over my poor physical fitness when I reminded myself “start where you are”.
Starting where you are involves:
Mindfully acknowledging the current state of affairs
Accepting that this is the reality of the present moment
Reminding yourself that you can manage this. You can tolerate it, you can work with it, and you can get through it.
And, starting with the first step that you can manage to take.
Start where you are is an attitude, one that’s simple yet powerful. Wherever you are right now is your starting point. Take stock mindfully of what’s really happening right now, and figure out the next logical step to move yourself in the direction of your goal.
For me, this is profound, because this attitude helps keep me in a mindful state, one that allows me to let go of self-pity, grief, anger, frustration and worry about the future and take meaningful steps to help myself.
I could sit and cry over the state of my physical fitness. I could wallow in self-pity and focus on how bad I feel. I could spend time blaming myself for not being smarter than to sit on a kitchen chair to work, or I could blame my employer for not buying me a better chair. I could whine about how awful the pandemic is. I could worry about whether I’ll ever be able to get back to the gym.
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When the pandemic hit, my employer’s response was immediate. We were all sent home to teach our courses. For those that don’t know, I teach at a post-secondary polytechnic in Canada. I spent the final 6 weeks of the semester sitting in a kitchen chair, broadcasting lessons from my laptop. And, I was promptly hit with a bout of sciatica caused by sitting in a non-ergonomic position for hours a day, days on end. 10 months and lots of physical therapy later, and I’m still experiencing pain. Worst of all, I went from working out three days a week to being barely able to hobble around the block.
My physiotherapist says I’m at a point where I need to start strength training again and I did my first workout yesterday. And, it was awful. It was so incredibly disappointing to see how far I’d backtracked. Less than a year ago, I could do back squats with 60 pounds of weight and I could deadlift 100 pounds. Yesterday, I could barely manage 10 reps of glute bridges which is a basic bodyweight exercise with no added weights. I wanted to cry.
But I took a deep breath in and reminded myself to just “start where you are.”
Before I tell you more about starting where you are, I have a quick announcement. I’ve just launched a new course called Build a Mindfulness Habit designed to help you turn your meditation practice into a habit. And I’m really excited about it. You probably know that habit-building is my thing. It comes from my experience as a meditation teacher. I’ve observed that, for many people, making sure they practice regularly enough is the single biggest obstacle they face when learning to meditate. And, if you don’t practice regularly, you don’t get all the physical, mental, and emotional health benefits.
The solution to this problem is simple: turn meditation into a habit. Then, when it’s time to meditate, you don’t hesitate, you don’t have any decisions to make, and you don’t fight with yourself over whether to meditate or not. You just do it. Automatically. Effortlessly. So, the new course walks you through building a meditation habit, step by step. And, along the way, you’ll learn to manage the other common obstacles to practice: boredom, restlessness, busy mind and much more. For details, pop over to mindful15.com. You’ll see the courses link at the top of the page.
Alright, so there I am, ready to cry over my poor physical fitness when I reminded myself “start where you are”.
Starting where you are involves:
Mindfully acknowledging the current state of affairs
Accepting that this is the reality of the present moment
Reminding yourself that you can manage this. You can tolerate it, you can work with it, and you can get through it.
And, starting with the first step that you can manage to take.
Start where you are is an attitude, one that’s simple yet powerful. Wherever you are right now is your starting point. Take stock mindfully of what’s really happening right now, and figure out the next logical step to move yourself in the direction of your goal.
For me, this is profound, because this attitude helps keep me in a mindful state, one that allows me to let go of self-pity, grief, anger, frustration and worry about the future and take meaningful steps to help myself.
I could sit and cry over the state of my physical fitness. I could wallow in self-pity and focus on how bad I feel. I could spend time blaming myself for not being smarter than to sit on a kitchen chair to work, or I could blame my employer for not buying me a better chair. I could whine about how awful the pandemic is. I could worry about whether I’ll ever be able to get back to the gym.