Mental Health
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The Power in Each Moment
Another day draws to a close. You're unwinding with your favourite drink, or perhaps you're getting ready for bed, the soft sound of your slippers padding from room to room as you lock the door, check this and that, or peeking in on the tousled heads of sleeping children.
Maybe you're already tucked into bed, lights out, and settled in for the good night's rest. The day has been recorded and you're playing the tape, perhaps on fast forward, occasionally running it on slow motion, or maybe hitting “pause.” You're reliving the workout, the training, where you can improve your performance, the moments of the day as it unfolded. You replay the accomplishments, things left undone, the words that came out of your mouth and the ones that were directed back at you.
There will be highlights; there will be defeats. Maybe you're contemplating what you did well, and what you could do better. The success of your day will depend upon your circumstances and your perspectives, of course. And it will depend upon what's important to you—and what isn't.
Did you have any joy in your life today? Were there genuine moments of happiness? Did you feel proud of yourself for what you achieved, even if just a small win? I truly hope so. But if you can't think of any, how about trying to find some now? Rewind the tape and go through it in slow motion so you can scan the picture for details you might have missed during the original recording and the first playback. Some days, it can seem like the only happiness you can find is that you're still breathing. What you find isn't important; it's that you found something—anything—that made you feel good.
Did you take some time to play?? Oh, please say yes! Okay, so you were insanely busy. But if you didn't actually stop and take some time to play, were you at least playful as you went about your activities? Did you inject some fun into your workout? Did you make a game out of challenging yourself? Was there a little water-flicking at your significant other at the sink? How about cracking the most lame one-liners possible, or peppering conversations with the worst puns you can imagine? Being silly is a great way to crank up the joy and energy in your life.
Did you take some time to nourish your spirit? To revive your weary soul? Did you write in your journal, have a yummy hot bubble bath, or go for a walk or a run amongst some trees? Did you get some hugs from loved ones, especially if you really needed (or wanted) one? If not, did you ask for one? If not, why not?!
Were you working working working? Did you train a little too hard? Were you being productive? Did you fritter away a bunch of your time? And if so, was it because you were taking a well-earned break, goofing off and taking some soul-saving time out? If you did, that's not frittering. That's essential for your health and wellbeing.
I hope that when you go to bed, you can say it was a good day. Or a mostly good day. Or at least, if it was a challenging one, that you were able to find some good in it here and there, and I hope tomorrow is much better.
But whatever happens throughout all of your days, I hope that when you climb into bed at night, you can feel good about what you did and the choices you made since getting up in the morning. Life is, after all, just a series of a lot of little choices every day.
I hope you're happy about the parts of your day that you could control (and hopefully, many of the other parts, too), because whatever you do on any given day should be of value to you. And as each day falls into the cemetery of all the others that went before it, every one that remains for you to spend becomes that much more precious.
So tonight—and every night—after you've crawled into bed, I hope that when you "rewind and press play," you feel confident that what you did for the day was important and meaningful to you because you gave up a whole day of your life for it.
