One Day at a Time

The alarm on my phone goes off. I'm comfy in my bed. Outside the sun is just casting a thin purple light across the horizon of the darkened sky as the night fights the losing battle to day.  It's a new day.  Twenty-four hours of opportunities, chances, choices, moments, and memories. This day is solitary and unique. Once these 24 hours are over, they are gone forever. Abraham Lincoln said, "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."  So, just live each day fully!  Take life one day at a time!  Easy, right?

Sometimes it feels like in my quest to take life one day at a time, one day becomes two...which becomes three...which becomes weeks or even months. That one day called in its gang of friends and completely overwhelmed me.  It is in one of these never ending bad days that I get lost and vanquished to a dark place.   At some point I just have to stop the unbalanced madness and get life back into perspective. I have to remind myself that I don't have to take on the entire 24 hours at once

First thing to do is to focus on one breath...then two. Fill your chest and belly. Slow your breathing which in turn slows your mind.  Take deep, slow, cleansing breaths.

Next focus on one step at a time. Do whatever is the next thing you need to do...get out of bed, shower, dress, eat breakfast, go to work,take care of children, exercise...pick one task and triumphantly complete it. Then pick the next step, and the next. Feel the strength surge through you as you complete one step at a time. There is no rush!  Things will get done when they get done.

Finally focus on moments...the few seconds on the yoga mat when you feel complete peace, your child's hand in yours as you walk to the park, the taste of fresh sliced juicy peaches, the cool refreshing blast of cold AC in a hot car, the clean refreshing smell of new bath wash in the shower, a hug from a loved one or friend.  Living each of these moments makes time stand still but ironically speeds the day along.  

Repeatedly, I've come to realize that when bad days overwhelm me, I find myself in self-preservation mode. This means I start living in my head. I forget to breath, take one step at a time, and live in each moment. I forget I am one person.  I start living on auto pilot.  The great philosophical guru Osho declared, "Get out of your head and get into your heart.  Think less, feel more."

I've never died from one, or two, or a weeks worth of bad days. As a matter of fact, I've gotten through 100% of my bad days. That's not too shabby!  I'm tenacious like that!  You are too!  And just like that thin purple line on the darkened horizon wins out over night, so too can our good days win out over the dark bad ones.