“Start again, start again” the words reverberate through the speakers filling the quiet meditation hall. That is the way with meditation.  We connect with breath briefly before the mind wanders off on yet another tangent.

Each time we sit the opportunity exists to start again, to start fresh.  Whether it has been a split second or a few moments or if we are lucky a longer time frame before our focus wandered, we return to breath and start again. With tender awareness we accept that the mind will wander and with gentleness and compassion for self we start again.

I recall having a conversation with someone who was  in addiction recovery where I taught yoga. He had ‘lapsed’ – we talked about it and how he now knew what another one of his triggers was and he was in an opportunity to Start Again.  Our paths crossed about a year later. After another stint in a different recovery centre he was approaching one year of sobriety.   This time more successful than the previous.

New Years  Resolutions and many of the tasks on our to do lists or our goals and best intentions can be sidetracked in a myriad of ways.  All that there is to do is Start Again.