Have you given in to cravings?

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a hundred times.
Come, yet again, come, come.

Rumi.



As we start making changes in our lives (in the immediate context) by fasting, we start to come up against inner resistances and blocks. Some of these can be extremely strong and powerful, very clever in outwitting our defences and inevitably at some point we may give in.

So you set yourself a target, be it a certain period of time, or not eating certain foods, or whatever it may be and then finding yourself suddenly undone - what to do?

The very first thing to do is not to blame yourself, as pragmatic people we realise that we are human, and not just that but what is done is done, and the important thing is to get back on the horse.

Failure, is not a pleasant word, it has many negative connotations, and we will sometimes strive to go to extraordinary lengths to conceal failure from ourselves and from others. However, failure is simply feedback, in this case it is feedback that on this occasion, a plan that had been made was undone. That is all it is. When we deny failure we miss learning from the experience and turning the negative feedback into a positive experience.

Whenever you encounter failure, rather than denying it, embrace it, open yourself to it, and vigorously pursue the lessons that are contained within it.

What exactly was it that led to be you being undone? Is this a trigger for you? (a trigger is anything that can have a disproportionate effect on you - for instance the smell of vanilla could be a trigger for comfort eating). What exactly about the trigger presented the issue this time? Were there other pressures or circumstances that contributed?

Take a long hard look at exactly what happened and do this as soon after the lapse as you are able - remember the more you learn from this experience, the more you turn this temporary blip into solid strategies that will prevent it happening again.


How you move forward from the blip depends very largely on what the exact nature of the blip is, in later posts we'll discuss some of them - in the meantime if anyone has anything specific they would like input on - please let me know.