Tag: resilience

FAILure is not a Bad Word

This morning, while I was writing in my journal, I noticed something that has come up for me often. Like most people, there are things in life that I shy away from because of previously bad experiences. And as many of us do, when I have a bad experience, I carry with me the burden of feeling like I “failed.” It is true that in certain previous experiences, in so much as they weren’t successful, I allowed the sense of failure to push me in a different direction without considering whether to try again. And so there I sat, thinking and reflecting, and staring at the word “failure” which I had written out on my journal page.

After a few moments, I took a deep breath and looked at the word failure again through a different lens. I realized that I was seeing the word in a different way, recalling something I had heard over the weekend. The word fail can also be an acronym for First Attempt In Learning. To fail means that you tried and didn’t succeed and hopefully you will have another opportunity, so that the “failed” attempt is really the first attempt. And while this is a good metaphor, as I was searching online, I found the image above and an article about the word “failure” also being an acronym. Failure is not the first attempt at learning and then that’s it, you give up and move on. Failure is when you try, don’t find success and then come back and reevaluate. It is when you err and then reflect on the mistakes to hopefully come back stronger the next time.

Failure is part of all of our journeys in life. While we are programmed to see Failure as a setback, in fact, failure is part of our forward moving journey of life. If anything, failure can be a tool that slows us down and if used wisely, a way for us to figure out if we are travelling on the right road and just hit a bump or if we need to take a ramp to another road that bypasses the impassable spot. Or perhaps we need to exit the road we are on completely and travel along a road that veers us off from our previously considered goals and dreams.

Today, my hope is that we can all embrace failure as something that teaches us lessons and helps us reflect on where we are and where we hope we are going.

If you or someone you know is looking to forge ahead and set new goals for the journey of life, we are here to help foster spiritual and emotional growth and change. Schedule your appointment today here. For more information, please contact New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC at 732-314-6758 ext. 100 or via email at newbeginningsspiritualcoach@gmail.com

Fostering Resilience through spiritual wellness

For so many of us, each day can feel like a a grind. We go about our routines, become consumed by work and find that time just flies by as if time is controlling us. How can we combat this?

I came across a short piece called Finding Purpose: Resiliency through Spiritual Wellness by attorneys Mary C. Aretha and Lynn B. Sholander. This short article focuses on how lawyers can foster spiritual wellness and meaning in a very competitive, adversarial profession. I recommend that everyone take a look, lawyer or not as the sentiments expressed are crucial to professionals in many fields.

As part of their advice for cultivating spiritual wellness, the authors speak about the value of prioritizing spiritual disciplines:

Prioritize spiritual disciplines.

If you are a person of faith, set aside time — even a few minutes each day — to engage in activities that bring you closer to the focus of your belief. This may include solitary or corporate prayer, reading or memorizing sacred texts, listening to sermons or talks, observing a regular sabbath, or attending gatherings with other believers in person or online. It could also include less traditional practices such as prayer journaling, going on prayer walks, or listening to faith-based music. Even if you don’t practice a particular religion, consider setting aside some time each day to reflect on what brings you joy

By taking the time to refocus on one’s innate beliefs and core values from one’s culture, faith, religion, spirituality, it can open the door to getting back to the self. During these moments, minutes or longer periods of time, like a Sabbath, we can remove ourselves from “professional” self, which is often our primary defining self, and cultivate the human being that we truly are. Do we take the time to remove our title and come back to the self?

Each day affords us a new beginning, a new opportunity, to use time to help foster our well being so that we can bring our best self into all we do and to who we are. May we be blessed to find the means to rejuvenate our resiliency through out spirituality.

For more information about New Beginnings Spiritual Coaching and Consulting LLC, and how we can support you on the journey through the waves of life, please check out: https://achaplainsnewjourney.wordpress.com/about/