How to Recover Yourself When You Backslide into Old Habits

Creating a life you love is really about finding pleasure in the day-to-day living. To seek the gems in the midst of the craziness that sometimes accompanies us in this life.

It also involves feeling the gamut of feelings. We focus on those sweet feelings, the joyful ones, the exhilarating ones. But in order to really experience them at all their glorious goodness, we also have to fully feel the crappy ones, too.

There are going to be those days. You know, the really hard ones. Sometimes, those hard days stretch into several days or weeks. You may feel lost. You may feel as if you’ve “fallen off the wagon”.

That inner critic will pipe up and tell you that you’ve completely backslidden and it’s hopeless. And will insist that you will always be a hot mess.

You may turn to old coping ways. Numbing with food or shopping. Over-filling your schedule so that you’re too busy to think or feel. You go into reaction mode instead of intentional and proactive choices.

You listen to the voices in your head that tell you all sorts of mean things and, because you’ve gotten away from what makes you feel centered and more you, you kind of believe them.

I’m going to tell you a secret so listen closely.

No matter how far you believe you’ve slipped into old ways of living, you never are too far back to wipe the slate clean and begin fresh today.

When you backslide that doesn’t mean you’re lost.

Honestly. It doesn’t matter if those crappy days led to crappy weeks and crappier months. It doesn’t matter that you’ve gained a few pounds or haven’t written (or painted) in ages.

When you wake-up from the haze, take that delicious awareness and remind yourself that you’ve done it before. You may need to reach out for some help – a friend, a coach, a counselor, your partner. Lay your ego aside and remember that you don’t have to get back on path alone.

And darling, let me tell you. Even when you backslide way away from who you worked to become, you never go too far back. Because you’ve climbed this mountain before and you can, I promise, do it again.

Begin with the basics – gratitude and sleep. Fuel your body – clean food and lots of water. Toss in those loving supportive things – meditation and exercise.