Mindfulness is the practice of being conscious or aware without judgment. When I get distracted by my thoughts during meditation I simply notice that my attention has wandered and bring my focus back to my breath.
No judging, no being upset that my mind has wandered. Minds wander! An important part of meditation is the noticing and the bringing of the attention back without judgment. Doing so builds our “mental muscle” that is capable of gently refocusing our attention when it wanders.
Taking time to be upset that our attention has wandered costs us time that could be spent refocusing ourselves.
This same technique can help us when we slip up on our goals.
Missed a workout? Overslept? Ate an unhealthy breakfast?
What if we skipped self-judgment and dwelling. Instead we can acknowledge the lapse and then gently bring our intention and actions back on track.
“Ok, I didn’t get up early so I wouldn’t have to rush today. I missed a day. I’ll set my alarm for tomorrow now and try again tomorrow.” End of story. No agonizing over the consequences or interpreting lapses as an indicator that you’re not capable of meeting your goal.
One of the hardest parts of meeting my fitness goals is missed workouts. Snow days, sick kids, sick me, school vacations, school conferences, volunteer shifts… sometimes these workout interrupters are sporadic, sometimes they happen all at once.
In February I had over 10 days go by without a single workout because of sickness and snow days. Then I worked out for two days and went on school vacation and missed another 5.
Now I’m back on track and I’m not going to waste time worrying about it.
When you slip-up on a goal that’s important to you, it’s hard enough to have missed that goal. It doesn’t feel good. Dwelling on it only makes it worse. If we can notice the lapse and gently redirect ourselves we may find it easier to stick to the goal in the long run. Dwelling may tempt us to give up the goal so we don’t have to feel bad about the days that we don’t meet it.
Instead we can stop feeling bad when we miss a day and just get back on track for tomorrow.
Special thanks to Cory Halaby who introduced me to mindfulness and meditation.