If you've ever ridden a bike up and down hills, you know why they call Wednesday "Hump Day." Oh, the strain and pain of climbing that hill, pumping for all you're worth, sweat pouring, breath heaving; you actually wonder if you'll make it. But then one more impossible effort brings you to the crest and you glide over the Hump into a glorious downward sail, coasting on gravity, all stress disappearing in delicious freedom.
Every Wednesday packs in all those intense feelings. The determined exertion of the early week culminates Wednesday morning: will you make good on your plans or are there too many obstacles? You launch your last serious push to the finish line, hanging in despite many a discouragement. Your trouble is rewarded by a smooth ride over the top; or perhaps it springs a flat tire, or it reaches the other side only when you get off and walk the bike.
On Wednesday, your luck could go in any direction, and then the rest of the week is likely to follow suit. If you mastered the Hump, you'll gloat til the weekend; if it refused to cooperate with you, then Thursday and Friday will be a lot of humble pie.
In every way, Wednesday is pivotal. So perhaps it makes sense for us to offer journaling assistance for this most trying of weekdays. Especially during these summer months, when we're examining the use of Journal Writing for Self-Improvement, it may be helpful to take a close look at Hump Day.
Just as the days of the week flow and ebb, so also goes the process of creating more healthy habits in our lives. When we're trying to drop harmful behaviors and learn to be more our natural selves, the effort is really hard at the beginning. And then there finally comes a point when you get over the Hump and it starts getting a whole lot easier.
On a bicycle, if the climb is really long, you don't really want to look at the top as you labor uphill. It's there, in your mind's eye, your vision of success. But you don't fix your eyes on it because then it will seem as though you'll never get there. Instead, you succumb to the present moment, looking down at the slow moving pavement beneath you, appreciating that you're still moving, albeit like a snail. You concentrate on breathing properly, on conserving your strength, on slow and steady exertion. In effect, you do your best to remain in a trace-like state, without anxiety. This way, the summit will be reached before you know it.
So that's my thought for this Wednesday. Yes, we have deadlines and ambitions, a host of productivity goals that must be met. If you're feeling particularly stressed, though, try taking your eyes off the prize for a while. Come back to right now. In this very moment, what can you perceive that is sustaining, encouraging, or simply pure and lovely in its self? Your plans for the future are important, but they do not override the life-giving abundance of the here and now.
It's not so easy to see such in-the-moment beneficence, so it will be helpful to journal around the idea. Take a little bit of time today to journal your perceptions of the world immediately around you. Whatever your plans and projects, ignore them for just a few minutes while you take a solid look at where you are right now, describing it in careful detail.
ASK YOUR JOURNAL
"What is the world telling me right this very minute?"
And let me know if this journaling exercise helps to smooth out the rest of your week!
If you could use some extra help in applying journaling to your self-improvement efforts, be sure to get your copy (spiral bound version or ebook) of my recent book, Start Journaling and Change Your Life in 7 Days!
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/2063469619/
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