Every Day is a Fresh Start....and An Opportunity to Practice Non-Attachment

It’s January 1, 2024, and I have officially decided that every day is an opportunity to start fresh, not just at the beginning of the year.

I discovered this question in a morning meditation practice:
What if the story I have told myself about myself could disappear? 

I’d have no self-imposed limitations.

This is the practice I have started for the past week as my ongoing work with non-attachment.

See, we tend to attach to our stories about ourselves.

For example: “I can’t run more than 3 miles.”

What if that isn’t true?

And where did that story come from?

Indeed, I had many months in 2023 where that was absolutely true…and I was deeply committed to the truth of my circumstances: I was healing a shattered kneecap.

Instead of having the audacity to think I could shed my leg brace and start running (because every ounce of me knew that would be a denial of my foundational practice of “keeping it real”), I’d say, “What if I could bend my knee another 5% today?”

But, once I had two medical professionals tell me that my knee could behave like any other healthy knee (my knee surgeon and my physical therapist), I knew that the only thing getting in my way was myself.

So, I got to know my knee in a new way.

How does it feel to squat?  Ride a bike fast? Climb a hill on my bike?

And….the big one…..how’s it feel to run?...

Every activity was an opportunity to be curious and play with what was real in the moment.

Fast forward to last week, and I simply posed the question: “What if I can easily run more than 3.1 miles?”

I would run for 4.5-5 miles and

So I did.

That’s it.  I just did.

When my legs and hips felt tired (but my heart rate and breathing were fine), I chose not to create a story about why my legs felt tired (“I can’t run any further….” “I’m not really a runner…”), I simply noticed the sensation and kept going.

This is the practice of non-attachment at work.

I encourage you to practice non-attachment with the stories you tell yourself.

Doing so will awaken a more profound sense of self-worth that will help you accomplish the deeper goals you have for yourself.

You will discredit the hardened ways of knowing you have about yourself. 

Let them fall away.

Because, at the ground level of real talk, the stories we tell ourselves are really us gas-lighting ourselves.

“You can’t run more than 3 miles at a time…why do you think you’re an athlete?”

“You can’t keep running when your legs are tired. Why don’t you love yourself and just stop to protect your legs?”

Nope.  Instead, I say, “It’s BECAUSE I love myself that I will keep running.  Because I know I have it in me to surpass the limited expectations I grew up with about myself. I told myself for years that I was a lazy, sedentary kid.  That there was no point in being athletic because my body wasn’t made to do that…not like THOSE girls could.”

My inner light shines brighter than any gaslight flame that works to hold me back.

I love and value myself, and I believe I can ALWAYS START today.

I stay present with each run because having an expectation based on how I felt the last time I ran is ATTACHING to that prior outcome.

Instead, every run is a game….a curious challenge. 

What happens if I run for five more minutes?

What happens if I slow down my cadence but keep running? 

What happens if……?

What happens?

The answer is that IT HAPPENS.

Keep going.  Play. Love yourself. Own your worth and the value your personal curiosity brings to your own life.