Pathwalking 230
Just breathe.
It is not cliché. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to just breathe.
I have been feeling off for a few days now. I have gotten a lot of things done, and I haven’t had anything bad happen, I have just not felt quite right. I have felt off. My energy has been low, and my spirits too.
We all have bad days. We all have times when we are off, and while we can seek out the solutions to our issues, there are times when all we can do is to just breathe.
Yes, I have written many times that it is best to find ways to not just go with the flow, and that nobody by I am responsible for how I am feeling. Despite this, I am, after all, only human, so there are still going to be days where I cannot get out of my own head, get out of a funk, and I feel low.
One of the keys to Pathwalking is to work on living in the here-and-now. Rather than getting caught up in the past or stuck thinking about the future, I want to work on being wholly present in the present.
That being written, when the here-and-now feels bad, feels low and is hard to break out of, what do you do? This is when you just breathe.
Focusing on just breathing allows me to regain my perspective. There may be a negative situation at hand that is making me feel down, it may be cloudy weather, it may just be old data I am having trouble getting out of my head. Whatever it is, when I stop and just breathe I have an opportunity to reset, to pause, to get back clarity within the moment.
When I focus on just breathing, I can clear my head of anything that is getting in my way.
I am my own largest critic. When I am not living up to my own expectations of myself, I can get annoyed, get disheartened, and that is often the place where I begin to sabotage myself. I do not believe in my own abilities, and I become fearful of both failure and success.
When I just breathe, I am able to re-assess my position on myself. I am able to take a more favorable view of myself, and while I am still likely to be somewhat critical, I can still do better with being less judgmental of myself in any negative ways.
Just breathe.
Sometimes I need to remember that this is sufficient. If I just breathe, and do the things I need to do in a day I am doing well. I don’t need to be a high achiever, I don’t need to be a super-hero, I don’t need to be amazing…I just need to be me. I only have to do the best I can do in being me.
This is the key of this statement. There is no need to be someone I am not, for myself or for anyone else. I just need to keep breathing, keep working on being the best me that I can be, and that is what is most important.
I want to be important, I want to have an impact on the world in a positive way. I want to do great things, some altruistic and some probably selfish. But the more important thing I want to do is to be true to myself, my ideals, and the paths I have chosen.
I just breathe, and I can better see the work I am doing to achieve that.
Today may not be the best of days. But so long as I just breathe, and work through, I can still maintain and improve upon who I am and what I want to do. I alone choose what is best for me.
I think I often expect too much from myself. When I fail to live up to the notions I have for myself, I don’t simply get discouraged, I have to contend with my depression. I have to arm and armor myself to do battle with the black dog once again.
I have been fighting this battle all of my life, and I am not ashamed to admit that. But when I allow myself to just breathe, when I can live in the here-and-now, I can always come out victorious.
Just breathe. There is tremendous power in this very simple notion.
Do you allow yourself moments to regain perspective?
GOAL LOG – Week 20:
Diet: I am continuing to write out what I eat daily. I have a large change I plan to implement in June, a temporary idea to jumpstart getting myself into shape.
Exercise: Fencing happened twice last week, and I made it to the gym once. I also got in some additional physical labor.
Writing: Only got in one day of writing. Need to work on that.
Meditation: Only 2 days of meditation, at least 6 minutes each day.
Gratitude: I wrote out 5 or 6 things to be grateful for nearly every day last week…but I missed a day. Made up for it by writing out 10 things the next day.
This is the two-hundred thirtieth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.
Follow me here!
