Dust yourself off and try again

#70 - Failure is never forever

“It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.”
—Germany Kent

No matter who or where you are, you've tasted defeat at some point in your life.

And if you take a moment to reflect on your experiences, you'll often find in hindsight, it's not the defeat itself which the tendrils of your memory hook into, but rather how you dealt with it.

Defeat, just like winning, is a mirror which shows you what you’re made of. And once it’s happened, it becomes a story in your mind which affects everything you do next.

When we win, we like the person we see in the mirror. And when we lose, sometimes we see that person do things we aren’t proud of.

But it’s not really what we’ve done in the past which affects the future at all. It’s what we do now.

Mind + Body Connection

Right now, can you recall a time in your life when you failed?

And while you think about that past failure, notice what happens to your hands and the rest of your body.

If you’re like me, then you probably tried to retreat inward by clenching your hands into fists, while holding your breath.

Just thinking about the adversity I’ve faced in the past makes me instinctively freeze up and want to retreat into myself for protection.

But the tricky thing here is, as far as your body is concerned, time does not exist like it does in your mind…

Letting The Past Be The Past

Since your body doesn’t know the difference between the past, present, and future, it creates feeling based on what its sensory system is experiencing now.

This means that if you’re moping around, focusing today’s conscious energy on a loss you experienced ten years ago, your body will feel the stress of the loss as if it’s happening now, recreating the same physiological experience.

And the solution is in the observation, which is easier said than done. Instead of focusing on feeling defeated, you focus on feeling victorious. You get back up and try again while telling yourself you can do it.

Which sounds simple in theory, right?

But we each have an entire lifetime to figure it out.

Practice Makes Perfect

Try this exercise and see how it works for you.

Sit down to stretch, breathing rhythmically through your nose. And as you begin to find tension in various areas of your body, notice what kind of thoughts come up.

As you stretch through the tension, breathe through any stressful memories which pop up. Tell yourself out loud, “I am ok right now. I am safe. All is well.”

Practice this each day to better understand the connection between tensions in your mind and body, and how they affect how you decide what to do next.

Back next week <3