Basic Goodness

Life-changing journeys for talented human beings offered by a some zen dude with the brain of an advertising guy and the body of a nightclub doorman. Welcome to Atalwin's blog!

  • Connect
  • Buy Zolpidem Online Uk Prescription Ambien Online Ambien Purchase Online Zolpidem 10Mg Online Cheap Zolpidem Tartrate 10 Mg
  • 100 DW website

A Spiritual Path Is About Starting All Over Every Day

February 10, 2015 By Atalwin Pilon Leave a Comment

14-Aristotle

I was trying to come up with a relevant topic for this post. I wasn’t sure what to pick or where to start. I didn’t write for so long: what to say? Should I explain myself? Defend myself? Come up with justifications?

Today I had an interaction with one of the participants of the 100 Day Warrior. He confessed to a slip in his discipline: he drank a couple of glasses of alcohol this week. I responded with something like: well, a spiritual path is mainly about starting all over every day. I remember that being a big insight for me. I thought that meditation was meant to bring me to a higher state of consciousness, some special elite mind state. But that hasn’t been true for me. What I did find was that every day is a new start; every day is a blank canvas. Actually, a day is already too big a unit to work with. We can start all over again in every moment; every moment is a blank canvas waiting to filled with the experience of the here and now.

The last two weeks a flue got the best of me. And although I wasn’t terribly sick it took a very long time before my energy level was back to normal. Actually, it still isn’t. This is my 16th day with a headache, for example. But what is more confronting is to see how a little virus also affects discipline and self-esteem and how easy it is to create a negative spiral. My brain worked so slow and I was so tired that I only could work a couple of hours per day. Because my blog is ‘extra’ it was one of the duties that were sacrificed first. And before you know it, it is hard to pick up the discipline again. The same goes with going to the gym and eating healthy: I had no energy to train and there came a point where I dropped my diet because I felt too tired to cook but also because I felt sorry for myself for being sick and at one point told myself ‘why eat so healthy if you ain’t even training?’

Now I am starting all over, just like I advised one of my participants. I just finished my chicken and vegetables, I went to back into the gym yesterday and today I am picking up writing. Tomorrow morning I will add a new challenge to my daily routine: I will start meditating daily in my new zendo and I will open it up for people who work in the same building.

I feel quite vulnerable, I admit. Chances are I will sit alone in my zendo and nobody will show up. Or people will come for a while and then stop because it is not for them (or they prefer yoga or running or spending time with kids or newspapers or any other legitimate reason). But that should not affect me. Deep down I know what is good for me and I also know that by sharing my meditation practice others can benefit too. Commitment, discipline, responsibility, loneliness, rejection and failure: taking on a daily task like this feels quite risky and unappealing to my ego (who rather feels safe and approved of). But then again, what did Aristotle say? ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit’ And although I might still have the habit to fall back into less constructive patterns I also have a habit of getting back up again and mustering up the courage to do what my ego fears. Not sure if it leads to excellence but I have seen how facing fears and starting anew have lead me towards kindness, humility, connection and authenticity every time. So let’s find out once more.

You may also like:

  1. A Remedy Against A World On fire
  2. Eps 64: Why ‘Super Human’ Is In Fact Natural
  3. Eps 31: When The Next Step Is Not Clear
  4. Eps 70: Constricting Patterns

Filed Under: Basic Goodness Tagged With: 100 Day Warrior, Courage, Life, Meditation, Personal

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SideAd

Would you like some Basic Goodness in your inbox too?

More than 2,367 awesome people from all over the world follow Basic Goodness. Sign up and join our tribe if you are into courageous living too.
* = required field
Language



powered by MailChimp!

Top 5 Most Popular

  • The black wolf and the white wolf (406962 Views)
  • 12 things every guy should master to become a real man (379226 Views)
  • Using social media as a tool for spiritual growth (153260 Views)
  • Open letter to my teacher Genpo Merzel (82639 Views)
  • I dare you to become more than a coward and a liar (62799 Views)

13 Questions to Joost

13 Questions to Douwe

13 Questions to Joan

Tagcloud

100 Day Warrior Amsterdam Anger Australia Bali Beautiful Beirut Blogging Colombia Compassion Courage Death Ego Fear Frustration good Gratitude Healing Heart Honesty Hong Kong India Insight Inspiration Iraq Journey Joy Karma Liberation Life Love Masks Meditation Personal Relationships Sadness Sam van Eeghen Thailand Transformation USA Vulnerability Warrior Wholeheartedness Wisdom Zen

You may also like

  1. A Remedy Against A World On fire
  2. Eps 64: Why ‘Super Human’ Is In Fact Natural
  3. Eps 31: When The Next Step Is Not Clear
  4. Eps 70: Constricting Patterns

Are you ready to become a Warrior?

Click the button below and dive into the World of the Warrior. You will find everything you need to know about the course and you can register immediately. Your transformation is important, it's how you will inspire the people around you to follow.

Learn more about the 100 Day Warrior

  • Connect
  • 100 DW website

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in