Since my last post last year, I suffered from anxiety and I had no motivation to write anything for many months. It has been months since I wrote something down for my precious website, and I did not know how to start again. I read an article recently from Shawn Mihalik who suffered the same thing – not really the same thing but almost the same thing. He is a person who meditates daily for six years until he stopped meditating. He went to his therapists and expressed his frustrations and sadness, he told his therapist that he felt bad because he did not meditate for two months. He is known as a person who mediates daily, yet he did not mediate for an extended period of time. What did his therapist told him?
No big deal. Meditate again, then you will no longer worry about not meditating.
I was surprised by the response of his therapist, he too was surprised. After the initial shock of hearing the words, “no big deal”, I realized what he also realized. He said that it’s true, why should we feel so guilty when we can start over again, whenever we are ready. There is a set back all the time, the important thing is that we start again.
There are times when we lose all motivations in what we used to love, sometimes we felt so frustrated that we drop it all together. However, starting all over again should not be difficult. Just start again – just do it. No judgment, no guilt, just start again. In my experience, I stopped writing for a while and I believed that it was difficult for me to write again. I stopped reading books, it felt difficult. An article telling me that it’s no big deal and just start again is such a great boost.
When starting again, it does not have to be difficult, a few minutes is all we need. Get used to that until you can add more minutes. I remember reading another article on meditation. If one wants to start meditating, he/she can start with 3 minutes meditation daily for three months. Once used to it, he/she can add more minutes. If not used to it, then stay at three minutes. If you forgot to mediate today, then do it the next day.
“All we have to do is pick it back up again, whenever we’re ready, and suddenly it’s not dropped anymore. Until the next time we drop it—which we almost certainly will. But then, again, we just have to pick it back up. Whenever we’re ready. There’s no rush.”
– Shawn Mihalik
If you want to read his article, read Beginning Again Is (At Least) Half the Process.
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