Relaxed and intelligent persistence is a key to positive changes
Self-care and positive change is vital to a good life. But the road to those changes is not always smooth. We do run into problems and challenges.
When you run into problems with a skill or exercise, don’t try to force your way through it. You may have better options. Explore.
For example, consider a situation where you want to work on your low back, with appropriate skills and exercises. If you are finding it challenging, there can be many ways to work around those challenges.
- Try decreasing the intensity. If repeating the cobra ten times to strengthen your back muscles is too difficult for you now, simply do it six or seven times for now, or give yourself a pause between repetitions.
- Switch to a different technique that allows you to build the same skill. For instance, if strengthening your back in the prone cobra is painful, try the bridge or the chair.
- Relax and try later. If strengthening is too fatiguing for your back muscles, try giving it a break for a couple of days or a week even and return to it gradually.
- Try working on a different skill for a while. Instead of focusing on back strengthening, try reducing the time you spend on that skill this week, and instead focus bringing awareness to your back, or on giving your back supportive touch and positive affirmations.
- You don’t have to give up when you face such challenges! Commitment in the form of relaxed persistence is the key to lasting skill development. So long as your priorities have not changed significantly, it is worth staying the course and taking the time required to develop the skills of movement.
When it comes to self-transformation and habit formation, we overestimate what we can do in one month and underestimate what we can do in one year!