I broke my heel a year ago while I was training for my first ultramarathon. I haven't been able to run since. Despite this, I recently re-broke it and find myself back on crutches.
In days past I would have gotten frustrated that things weren't going my way. How dare my body betray me? Doesn't it know that running is my primary stress reliever and in the past year I have found nothing that truly replaces it? Doesn't it know I need to walk or run my dog twice a dog or he tears up my house?
As my 40th birthday approaches in a few short weeks, this year, instead of frustration, I'm going to try surrender. Instead of anger, I'm going to try gratitude. Yes, my broken heel means I still can't run -- or walk very well with the crutches -- but it will give me more time to read and meditate as I am pretty much chair- and home-bound until it heals. And maybe I'll take up a new hobby -- like painting -- in all of my chair-bound time.
Life happens all around us. Our decision is how we will react to it.
So I'm letting this fall be about surrender. About not being able to control everything and not having everything go the way I'd like it to. About learning whatever lesson my broken heel is supposed to be teaching me instead of powering through or ignoring it. About allowing and letting go instead of forcing and protesting against.
This will not be easy for me, but as the famous quote from Narcotics Anonymous (often misattributed to Albert Einstein) says: "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."
So I've decided to stop the insanity, do something different, and hope for the best. In this case, healing -- body, mind and spirit.
What are you holding onto that maybe you need to let go of and surrender? I invite you to join me as I go through this process of surrender and letting go. I expect we will all find ourselves a little bit different (and hopefully a little bit better person) on the other side.
And don't be afraid to get a little creative in the process. Sometimes your experiments won't work -- like when I tried to "walk" my dog on while I was on a knee scooter yesterday morning -- but sometimes they will -- biking while he runs beside me is much better!
So open up and see what happens, and come back here to share what you learned when you surrender to your life circumstances.
For more by Mary Pritchard, Ph.D., click here.
For more on emotional wellness, click here.