April 2015 marks my 36th year of sobriety. You could say that demonstrates that I have pretty darn good willpower. And certainly I do as far as staying away from alcohol. But life presents me with many other temptations for which I could improve my willpower.

 

 

 

 

Who among us can resist a piece of chocolate?

The so-called health experts even suggest that chocolate may be good for us. Great news! But they aren’t talking about eating a lot of chocolate (darn); think moderation. In fact, moderation is the key for many things. How are you doing with that? I vacillate with the whole moderation thing. I need more willpower.

 

If you’re like me you have good and bad days. Maybe even a little of the in-between, right?

 

 

Here’s what I want: To experience more good days, when I have sufficient willpower to take better care of my mind and body. I’m after more balance.

Recently I have been doing some reading and have come up with a few ideas for myself. If you’d like to join me, that’s great. Maybe you already have lots of willpower and you don’t need anymore ideas. That’s great too. I guess you could stop reading at this point.

 

 

Four areas where I’m starting in order to gain more willpower:

• Meditation daily
• Exercise smarter
• Sufficient sleep: Some experts suggest seven hours of sleep, and to include a one-hour daily nap.
• Chunking–take big tasks, goals, dreams, etc., and chunk them into manageable pieces.

You’re probably thinking this is all merely common sense. Certainly it is, but even so, how much of this do you incorporate into your life? I’m pretty good at exercising everyday because I have a dog that loves to run on the beach at least twice a day. I have to admit I did a lot more exercise in my former life: in the gym when I lived in Washington.

Daily exercise is a good habit, everyone knows that. But it has to fit in one’s life plan, and that means sticking to a goal of actually doing it. This is where good ol’ willpower fits in.

Sometimes we get lazy, but more importantly we aren’t making our own health and well-being a priority. But even when I went to the gym everyday, I wasn’t as fit and happy as I am today. I’m no expert, but my educated guess is that I fell prey to the demon that’s known as STRESS. Most of that came from my work. Even though I loved being a teacher, there are many things about that profession that caused me great stress.

 

But back to the present: I’m getting older and it is even more important than ever to use my willpower to make sure I stay as healthy and happy as possible. This is where I feel meditation can have the most impact in the quickest and most satisfying way.

There’s only one way to say it: I am a novice when it comes to meditation. In my researching that I did online (love the internet), I found a site that is helping me; it’s called HEADSPACE. I signed up for a ten-day trial, and I am on day two. I’ve been guided in meditation for 10 minutes a day (for two days of my ten so far) and it’s FABULOUS. Ten minutes is do-able. I don’t know if I’ll sign up to continue once my free trial is over, but at this point I am impressed.

I am encouraged that I will finally learn how to meditate and the even better news is that I can be comfortable while doing it. I can sit in a chair to meditate, instead of trying to sit like a pretzel on the floor. Maybe you don’t have a problem with sitting on the floor in an uncomfortable pose, but I do. Maybe that’s why I avoided meditation for so long.

 

Life is good, even when it’s not.

While I’m still here, I’m going to work on getting better, instead of letting myself down.

It’s going to take willpower, and I’m going to garner more of it. Join me?