Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Noticing A Need for Grace, From Me, For Myself

Well now. Today I had a problem. I kept thinking of what I was noticing. And then I started thinking that it would be like yesterday and the "moment" would present itself to me.

But nothing really presented itself to me!

I did notice I was carrying an annoyed spirit around with me. My annoyed spirit was "riled up" when I had trouble doing some of the poses in yoga at lunchtime, when I kept losing my balance during the standing thigh stretch. I was supposed to watch my inner talk when I fell out of the pose, and not be critical. I was supposed to say, "I fell, let me begin again." I was supposed to extend myself some grace in this "failure". Fortunately my inability to hold the pose for very long did not trigger my inner critic. She is very harsh. Still, I was not altogether happy about having to "begin again!"

This afternoon, a friend was talking about the idea of extending grace to myself (the same grace I extend to others), and the sassy little girl inside me said to me, "No! You're supposed to live in such a way that you don't ever need grace."

The adult inside me said the sassy little girl needed a spanking, not grace. My friend said that even the little girl needs grace.

Extending grace to myself is apparently going to be one of my life-long tasks. 

So today I noticed a new mantra for myself. Simply spoken, it is "I fell, let me begin again." Or, possibly, I failed, let me begin again."

10 comments:

  1. I love this.

    I will remember this.

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  2. And I will remember "I'm really good at this!"

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  3. Omg, that was so good.... sassy... I can so relate. Me too, I will remember that one. I have to remind myself to grant myself the same grace I give others. Yeah, we all know how hard that can be.

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  4. Why is grace so hard when it should be so easy? I love your mantra.

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    1. I don't know the answer to your question, Mindy!

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  5. That's difficult to do, I know. That voice sasses me, too, but I'm getting to where I can just ignore what she says and she actually shushes. :)

    I was thinking of you today as I did that same move in the pool. And lost balance. And tried again.

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    1. Love that you tried again, D!

      My little voice does seem to be getting a little quicker to shush when I kind of ignore her and go on and do what I'm gonna do!

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