On Mindful Monday, my readers and I practice the art of pausing, TRYING to be still, or considering, ever so briefly, the big picture. We’re hoping this soul time will provide enough peace of mind to get us through the week!

If you are anything like me, it’s easy to see where you want to go, and how far you are from that goal. For example, I desperately want to take things less personally, but I’m still so affected by other people’s responses. It’s much harder to see the progress you’ve already made in certain areas.

This is where therapy is helpful, especially if you’ve been working with a therapist for a few years, as I have been. When I’m down on myself about wanting to be at a certain point in my recovery, Nancy reminds me of my accomplishments to date.

And because success breeds success, or at least a sense of hope, I am going to list a few victories of mine to date.

I hope you do the same.

1. Today I’m working harder than I ever have–juggling multiple projects and meeting deadline after deadline–but I have invested less of my self-identity in my work. This is huge. It was the one goal with which I left Johns Hopkins inpatient program: to be more than my work, to know and love and accept myself at a deeper level.

2. Because I’m less invested, I feel empowered to say no with regards to my work. I listen to my needs first and foremost when asked to write on a particular topic or to join another social-networking forum. If I don’t feel right about it, even though all the other fish are swimming in that direction, I simply turn around and try to find my own rhythm.

3. I can better recognize the bad guilt from the good guilt: the condemnations such as “you are a horrible mother” from the convictions, such as “let’s try to cut down on the kids’ tv time.”

4. I am better at catching small breaks in my day, like I explained on Friday, when I took three minutes to lie down and hear the birds sing as I was folding laundry.

5. I am less frazzled on mornings like today, when three unexpected “surprises” wreck your schedule and you are forced simply to go with it.

6. I am closer to seeing myself as God sees me … a delicate and precious flower in the hands of the creator, instead of as a dysfunctional, chemically malfunctioning chick.

7. I’m getting out of the way more … in my work and in my life … so that I can be used as an instrument of God. And in that sense, I fret less about bad blog numbers or royalty figures … because the most important thing is to do the work with the right intention, with purity of heart, and I’m able to do that on more days this year than last year.

8. When I start to get overwhelmed, I remember to just take it a minute at a time, that I don’t have to figure out the rest of my life right now. And I try more often than not to postpone any decision that I don’t have to make.

9. And finally, I am better at recognizing unrealistic expectations. I still don’t do anything about them. But I recognize them!

What about you? In what areas have you made progress?

To read more Beyond Blue, go to http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.

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