Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt, crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before the program, I used to carry my past with me. Every flaw, every mistake, I bundled them all up and held them closest to my heart. I believed that each of these imperfections held the truth about me and that if I ever ignored even one, I will forget who I really am and start expecting more from life than I really deserve – that I would become an egomaniac with no real concept of who I am. In truth, I went the other way to an extreme; I became a person with no self-esteem who had no real concept of who I was. What I didn't know is that every time I collected these moments of shame, I weighed myself down with self-doubt and fear. I would walk into each day expecting myself to fail and fall short of being “good enough”. My life became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Today, I try to go for between these two extremes. I do not ignore my mistakes, but I accept them, learn from them, and then let them go. In this way, I can grow. My mistakes don't weigh me down like an anchor, anymore. I see them for what they are – my Higher Power trying to gently guide me towards greater love for myself and others. Now I can love my mistakes and be grateful for them in the same way that I can love and be grateful for my successes. Both bring me closer to my Higher Power.

A meditation for March 24, 2013.

Promise of a New Day – Paula Abdul