The reason why you need a foundation
It’s not on the easy, breezy days that you are in most need of your principles, habits and behavioural patterns. It’s when the whole world crumbles around you, that you need that foundation to stand on. The truth is, that in my experience, all these things that you can do to create your foundation, be it meditation, cold showers, daily journaling, breath work, daily walks, reading… they make a very small difference. But together, they can make an even bigger difference.
When the shit hits the fan, when it all comes tumbling down, all these things won’t make it easy, at all. It won’t take away all the pain, all the challenge, all the character breaking decisions you have to make. It will not get you out of anything. But what it will do, is help train you and callus your mind to be better equipped to handle those horrible situations that inevitably do come around.
So whenever you are faced with an uncomfortable situation, irregardless of how uncomfortable it is, see that as a sign that this, whatever it is, is something you can become better at. This is something you can work to become less uncomfortable with. It’s an area where you can improve, and not something you have to run away from. It’s that difference between choosing pain now, for less pain in the future, rather than less pain now, for more pain in the future.
A foundation, in the end, is built, brick by brick, from the ground up, using the most fundamental things required in order to get it in place. Look at what you need in your life to make you feel stable, secure, calm and like you can take on whatever you have to. Whether that is just being able to get through the day without breaking down into tears, feeling like you have no reason to wake up in the morning. Or feeling stuck in the life you have and not having the energy to get yourself out.
And it all starts with the smallest action, taken right now. Deciding to act. Deciding that enough is enough. This is your life, nobody else’s, and the reason why you feel like someone else is controlling your life, is because you haven’t taken control. You let other people and events, affect you so much that your feelings throw you back and forth between tantrums and breaking down into tears, never going nowhere, always staying the same. Take control. Act. The best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.