Commitment to our practice

Can you hear this voice inside you that whispers:

"What's the use of all of that???" "What difference it will make???"

How being consistent and persistence with my practice can make a real difference????

or something that goes like this: "Whatever I do, I keep on falling into my old patterns. My efforts are just for nothing..."

We all have these voices inside us and it is okay to acknowledge them and notice that they came to "visit" us again. : )

BUT, you know what?

When we believe that what we do, does make a difference and we are willing to persevere with our efforts great thing can and will happen.

They always do!

We just need to practice being patient and keep on with our practice, which we know in our hearts that is significant to our lives.

It might sometimes feel like nothing, but a bit and a bit from the "right things" will create the critical mass that WILL change you!!!!

I have experienced this so many times within myself and with many of my clients.

One positive thought and then another, one deep breath at a time, one little effort and then another. Keeping on with the meditation practice (even if it is for a short time each day). keeping on nourishing ourselves with the "right people" around us, feeling grateful and appreciative of all what we DO have in our lives and there is ALWAYS what to feel grateful for!!! Stopping for few minutes each day and observing our breath, observing how we feel.Stopping and observing nature, being still, using our breath...

These are all just a few examples of the "little" things that we can do, day by the day.

And as insignificant they might seem sometimes, when our mind raises its critic's voice, interferes, and whisper "what difference this will make????" "Your issues are SO big, there is no use for all of that."

Let your mind talk. Be polite and whisper back "thank you for sharing" : ) Treat it like an old nagging friend that just want your attention, but know deep in your heart that all of your "little efforts" DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!! They will change you!!! They will create critical mass within you !!! Your job is just to continue!!!!

As you might know by now, one of the things that I just love doing as part of my work as a narrative counselor is to use the power of a good story in order to emphasize things.

Stories are meaning makers and they tend to vibrate and have a ripple effect in us stronger than just regular words.

So, here is a beautiful story about the weight of a snowflake:

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake", said the robin to the dove. “Why it weighs nothing at all,” replied the dove. “In that case,” the robin went on, “I must tell you a marvelous story. I was sitting on a branch of a fir tree, close to its trunk,” the Robin began, “when snow began to fall...not heavily, not in a raging blizzard, no just like a dream without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the needles and twigs of my branch. I reached the number 3,741,952. Then when the 3,741,953 snowflake dropped onto the branch weighing nothing as you say, the branch suddenly broke off.” With that, the robin flew away. The dove thought about the story and said to herself, “I sometimes think that all my efforts and the little I can do make no difference. We might think they are nothing at all, but if we keep on putting all our efforts together, great things are possible.”