Have you ever felt like everything was going wrong and you had no control?
It happens to all of us, so you’re not alone. For example, once I was minutes away from my live radio show, Mastering the Shift Living Your Noetic Reality, and my engineer asked, “Rebecca, your guest is not on the line; do you have a backup phone number I can call?”
Beginning to feel panic, I replied with a simple, “no”. We then decided to play an archived show. At that moment I had several thoughts racing through my mind.
What could have happened to my guest?
Were they OK?
Did I mess up in some way?
I should definitely have gotten a backup number!
The feelings of disappointment, fear, and confusion consumed me. This was a prime example of feeling like life was spinning out of my control and I had failed in one way or another. I held the expectation that my day would be ruined and I would lose sleep over the impending judgment and grief I imagined I would face when people found out that I wasn’t perfect.
I found myself running the scenario over and over in my head trying to figure out WHAT WENT WRONG! Finding the cause of the problem and then trying to fix it as quickly as possible was my formula. But, life sometimes is a mess…and it doesn’t need to be fixed or cleaned up.
Sometimes life can be imperfect and so can we. It is perfect in it’s messiness and we are perfect in our imperfection. Mistakes happen, people don’t show up, promises are broken, things get lost and plans change.
Well, what if mistakes are not fatal? What if they are just lessons teaching us to be present in a loving way so we can ‘let go’, drop the past, and move into this moment of new possibilities?
When my guest called, apologizing again and again – “I don’t know what happened!” What did we do? We rescheduled.
This was the solution and it didn’t need all of the baggage. It can be as simple as forgiving, letting go, and moving forward with a new lesson.
So, what can you do when you make a mistake?
First, begin by apologizing. A sincere apology is the first step to accepting that something didn’t go as planned because of your actions. You are owning up to it, and giving whoever your actions may have affected the opportunity to forgive you.
Second, forgive yourself for any judgments about making mistakes, not being perfect, or needing to stay in control. Remind yourself that you are human and must be kind to yourself even when you don’t make the best decisions.
Lastly, take a nice deep breath, let go, and allow yourself a moment of human compassionate loving for ALL of YOU…
I get that it’s hard when life feels out of your control but these steps will help you begin to move past mistakes and find the perfection hidden inside them. If you need some help getting into the right frame of mind for overcoming frustration when you make mistakes, this meditation will help center you and is a great place to start.