Recognizing and Taking Credit for the Small Victories
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For many years I have expected a grand change in myself that, the way I perceive the world, and my confidence and happiness levels. I thought one day a great shift would occur and my life would be forever different pretty much overnight. Well, I have been waiting awhile, and unfortunately, that doesn't seem even close to being true. It took a long time to realize that it takes a million tiny steps and a few big steps that have created a difference. I've realized that we need to take notice of the small victories and the small things that create happiness within us, to notice a change.
Last night, I set an intention to go to a 6am yoga class and I told my husband, "You have to make sure I get up!!" It's always been a struggle for me to spring out of bed in the morning. I often oversleep, hitting that snooze ten times and even resetting my alarm for a later time, so I don't have to be inconvenienced by that awful snooze button. It is definitely frustrating for me. I have tried putting my alarm across the room, making coffee in my room, drinking a bunch of water before bed so I have to pee in the morning...nothing has worked consistently. The most promising thing I have found thus far, is usually, if I set an intention on getting up and why I want to get up early the next morning, I will get up...but that is not very frequent.
Anyhow, my friend sent me this great video yesterday and it talked about honoring yourself, so I was going to honor myself this morning and go to this yoga class. My alarm went off this morning and I actually woke up and turned off my alarm. It was starting to wiggle my way out of bed, when my husband says, "Do you need to get up?" (Thanks babe! I always appreciate his help for things that matter to me.) But I actually got up and slowly got ready. Unfortunately, it was a little too slowly. Another thing I am currently improving, is being on time. I am always late and it is so frustrating. I ended up leaving a little late and when I arrived the class had started so I was going to sneak in the back where hopefully I wouldn't be too disturbing, but then I pulled on the door to go in and Damn! It was locked. All the yogis were sitting cross legged with their eyes closed in a room beyond the entrance. Well shit. 6:02am. What do I do now? It would make sense to wait until their eyes opened and wave at them to let me in or to even knock gently on the window to get their attention. But no...I walk disappointed back to my car and get in. I hate this feeling. The feeling of knowing I should be doing something different but taking the opposite action anyway.
I reluctantly drove away, but on the way back home I didn't let myself spiral into the typical negative self talk. Victory! Instead, I thought through it and looked for the good. I got up this morning! Yay! I actually had ease getting out of bed because I set an intention that meant something to me the night before. Victory! And now I am happy to get to watch the sunrise with my dog Mali, write this, and see my husband off as he leaves for work and I will go to the 8am yoga class. I wanted to go to that one anyway :). Happy day people! Let's not be too hard on ourselves today, we need to honor ourselves and give credit where credit is do.
