An Invitation to Start Over

An Invitation to Start Over

Skylar Liberty Rose | June 9, 2015 | Inspiring, Living

We’re six months into the year. For many of us, our New Year’s resolutions are somewhat of a distant memory. The blank canvas we excitedly laid our good intentions on is laying over there in the corner being ignored. In fact, it’s probably been shoved under the bed so it can’t stare back at us, accusingly.
We love to start anew at specific times that we associate as being ‘fresh’. Those times are inevitably called Monday and January.
For some reason we feel that if we stray from the path that we’ve set for ourselves, we cannot simply pick up where we left off. We must wait until the appropriate time falls again.

What if we decided to view each new breath as an untrodden trail? What if every single second was a new chance?

Just because somebody, way back when, decided to give names to moments in time, to set dates and apply numbers, it doesn’t mean that we have to live by them when it comes to our hearts desires. We’re alive now.
Every breath is an opportunity to start again. Every single breath. 
When we live by the calendar, when we count by the clock, we miss out so many moments. We lose the chance to be who we truly want to be. We also place an inordinate amount of pressure on ourselves:
“Oh no, I ate the chocolate cake and now I’ve messed up. I’ll have to wait until Monday to start again with my health regime”. 
“Oh no, I didn’t keep up with my gratitude journal, I’ll have to remember that for next year’s resolution”.
Cue, days of guilt, shame and self loathing.

Here’s the thing. Monday is just a name. January is just a name.

Our brains have been conditioned to recognise them as ‘new’. Our hearts, however, know no different.

There is, and never will be, a better time than now. @SkylarLiberty (Click to Tweet!)

We don’t have the promise of tomorrow. None of us.
I remember when I finally quit smoking, eight years ago. I’d tried numerous times before. I’d used aids and books and support groups. They’d worked, for a while, but inevitably I’d be back to lighting up after a time. I decided to do it differently. Instead of joining the mass of other good intentioned people on New Years Day, I’d quit in mid December. People thought I was crazy attempting to give up during the festive season. But I did it. I wobbled and I procrastinated, but I did it. It was hard going at times. Damn hard. But I did it anyway. And it didn’t matter to my body what date I’d claimed my freedom on, only that I had.
We don’t have to wait days or months in order to bring change into our lives. We can simply begin now. In this very breath.
This second has passed. The subsequent moment has arrived. We are not who we were, even just one heartbeat ago. And all of life is like that.
We can start over. We can remind ourselves of the quote from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, “I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
Take a breath. Find your strength. Start anew. Right now.