Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to talk about falling off track in life and then getting back on it again. So sometimes in life, you know, we're just sort of roll, with healthy habits and life feels like it's moving along pretty smoothly. And in these times we're often enjoying the benefits of our choices. You know, maybe we're feeling more mental clarity, more energy, improved mood.

But then something happens and we fall off track. And so we lose touch with our regular routines and find ourselves doing things like maybe sleeping in, skipping meditation, or having a glass of red wine instead of going to yoga or a walk. Now the real risk in these times when we fall off track is actually not the interruption in our healthy habits. It's how we perceive the situation. Because often when we fall off track, we become very, very self-critical.

We guilt trip ourselves. We put ourselves down, or we really can start to doubt ourselves in these moments as well. For instance, you know, we might start to have very black and white thinking and saying things to ourselves like, you know, I failed at regular meditation. I just can't do this. Even though you've actually only missed a few days.

Or you might think I'm just so hopeless at this, why even bother. So while it's important to have discipline so that we can stick to the things that keep us happy and healthy, it's really important also to balance that resolve with self compassion and patience. Because the reality is that habit change takes time, and we all have times along the way where we fall off track. The trick is, as the old saying goes, is to simply get back on the horse. Now you probably heard this old saying, right? Get back on the horse.

It's a gentle encouragement to just notice when you fallen off track and keep it really, really simple. Just turn around and try again without too much fuss. So for instance, if you fail to keep your healthy diet for two weeks and you put on a little bit of weight. You simply acknowledge the setback with awareness and compassion and without any self-judgment, criticism, or shame, without any self-doubt. Just get back on the horse and continue to eat well and take care of your body.

Of course, just like learning to ride a horse takes time, you may fall off a few times along the way. We also might experience that, you know, it just takes some time and gentle determination for our habits to become second nature, to be really ingrained. So my invitation is to remember when you get off track, mix your discipline with self compassion and patience. Let go of the self-judgment. See if you can just view each break in routine not as a failure, but as a natural part of your unfolding, learning, awakening and growth.

And if you care to, you just dust yourself off, keep it simple, smile and get back on the horse. As always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And inviting you now to settle in for today's meditation.