Falling short of goals
You probably are familiar with the feeling of being "In the Zone".
That's when everything is flowing, you are not stressing over your duties, you have your To Do's scheduled, when you go to sleep at night you are satisfied with what you've accomplished throughout the day and most of all you are calm and relaxed.
On the opposite side is the anxiety of falling short of your goals and habits. You are feeling stressed and overwhelmed with chores, most likely you feel 24hrs are not enough, of course your sleep suffers and so do the relationships with people around you.
Good news is that it's perfectly normal!
It's normal to experience ups and downs. This is just the pattern of life...you know, just like a lifeline - if it's always flat and steady there's nothing that keeps us alive and striving for development.
So isn't it great to think of the lows as of the approach high jumpers are making before they jump over the bar? Nice, ha?
Well...yes and no. Because it's easy to say it from the perspective of someone who's experiencing a "high" period of their lives and it's so much harder to see things that way when you find yourself on the lower side of the lifeline metaphor.
This is exactly what happened to me postseason.
I was in the flow of playing pro volleyball, having a great season in Baku, I had found my rhythm, established my daily rituals and habits and felt the strongest I've ever felt both mentally and physically.
As soon as the season ended, alongside with all the chaos around the finals, came also all the anxiety of preparing for my trip back home, packing, organizing the following months, overwhelmed of trying to see all my family and friends (conveniently never living in the same city...most likely pretty far and often not in different countries) all of this while trying to maintain some of my habits throughout that crazy period of time.
Shortly that didn't work out well for me. My body needed rest, so except some very inconsistent yoga sessions, my physical activity was limited to long walks and riding bike with friends. I tried to keep my food choices as good as possible but on the road and in constant movement it's hard to always prepare and carry your own food. I started feeling bad about not doing the best for my body, slowly let go of some of my mindfulness habits, that took weeks to build and maintain, I stopped journaling regularly and writing To Do's in my agenda, which totally got me off track and stressed about things I needed to be doing.
There's one thing, though, that I kept doing. Every. Single. Day.
Meditation!
Probably the sole reason I made it through that one month of craziness without completely losing it. I did my guided meditation for 15' every morning or evening. To be honest I was close to missing a day a couple of times but at the end I didn't. I meditated for my own sanity and peace of mind but there was also a special reason why I was so consistent.
I'm using this application called "Headspace". It offers a 10 day trial period and if you would like to use it further you need to pay. So I did. But there are a lot of people who could benefit from this app and can't afford it. Good news is in the paid version of the app when you hit milestones at 10 days, 1 month, 3 months and etc. the app developers offer you a gift coupon that equals the number of consecutive days you meditated. I thought it's a really thoughtful gift to give someone. So I already have given away my 1 month and 3 month free Headspace and I'm looking forward to achieving my 6 month milestone and giving this precious gift to someone.
You see, when you do things not just for yourself, you are more responsible and your motivation is always stronger. At least for me it works that way. So whether it will be the possibility to actually give something to someone or just the fact that you would be a good example and a possible role model...look outside of yourself, be more, be bigger, find your motivation in uplifting others, be open hearted and enjoy the fact that others are benefiting in some way from your actions!
P.S. A friend I look up to very much and who's inspiring me daily to be better just told me not to be too hard on myself. He pointed out how at times the mind and body just needs time to rest and how you are that much more focused and determined to achieve your goals once you get going again!