I love this line from Glennon Doyle’s book “Untamed”. It has stuck with me, especially during this time of hard things. We just had Yom Kippur, the Jewish high holidays of introspection, among other things. The intention of fasting on Yom Kippur is to “cleanse for our sins” and to slow down our internal rhythms so we can further self reflect, but I do think we can make it mean what we want, and how many sins are we actually committing this year if we have pretty much been at home?!

I realized I haven’t done a traditional day of fasting in at least a decade, because, well, I hate it. My body is cold, tummy rumbling, and I just don’t love missing meals! But this year, I decided to fast. Why? Because I need to prove to myself in a year that requires extra resilience, that I can do hard things. So as I am writing this at 2:30 PM on Yom Kippur, I can truly say it has been easier than I thought! Never mind that it is 90 degrees outside, and I am in my Ugg slippers to keep my cold feet toasty. The anticipation of the challenge has been greater than the actual challenge. That’s noteworthy right there. My loud and embarrassing tummy rumbles are out of the way. It happened while I was sitting with my family watching services this year. I can assure you (or maybe I just need to assure myself) that no one heard because my sister, who I was sitting next to, would definitely have given me a compassionate look for it.

We need to do hard things just to prove to ourselves that we can do it. Keep our resilience high. What does that look like for you? If we can get through one hard thing, we can handle others in our lives. The intention of fasting on Yom Kippur is to “cleanse for our sins”, but I do think we can make it mean what we want, and how many sins are we actually committing this year if we have pretty much been at home?!

Achieving our difficult goals can give us the positive mind set to tackle other goals. If we can learn anything from this time, it is to go with the flow, although that has been quite rocky. Just pull up your bootstraps and push in. Anticipation is sometimes the hardest part. Being afraid is normal. It’s unknown how we will come out on the other side, but hopefully, it is not as bad as you might have thought. The courage we build from this practice only gets greater, and if we fail, we have that courage to rest, recover, and get out there again. Failure being an opportunity for learning or to consider a different approach.

Take time to think about what hard things there are for you this year, and how you are navigating through them. Think about what hard things you went through and how it feels to be on the other side. Take pride in yourself for going through it, and keep that mindfulness of courage. You will need it when it happens again.