Day 2 – Being Ashamed of Past Failures

“I am not what happened to me. I am what I chose to become because of it.” – Carl Jung

FEAR has always been a big part of the mindfulness lessons.  Fear has a wide breadth to it, that ‘fear of’, and many reasons that keep us from acting and moving forward.  Our past failures can hang over us like a huge weight or a steel trap door, which we think should never be reopened.  We use the excuse and say things in a shameful response, “I have learned my lesson”, and learning from your mistakes is one thing, having them refrain you from trying again is another. 

​Never let that be your cage; try again, but with a different attitude or perspective.  If there is something you believe is in your path for success, and you fail, try again using a different approach.  We all have moments we’d rather erase—times we fell short or made poor choices. Shame keeps us from seeing the lesson and robs us of gratitude.  Something needs to change in order for the outcome to become more.  The definition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Look back not with judgment, but with appreciation.  Every mistake was part of your apprenticeship in living.  Today, revisit one past failure and identify one good thing that came from it—a skill, a truth, and a bit of humility.  Humility, not shame, is always part of your path.  Honor it as part of your training.