Good news: whether you’re trying to take something on or give something up and nothing seems to be working or sticking, there’s another approach that will give you the results you’re looking for.

There are multiple options to drive you where you’re going, but only you can find the option(s) that works for you.

If you’ve not yet arrived at an option that works for you, it merely means you’ve yet to uncover it. The soul workout is moving in this knowing for incentive in blazing a trail to it.

The option I’m speaking of today involves two words that in my past I found highly offensive (I’ll whisper them in case they have the same effect on you) slow down. 

I hear you and understand- you want results yesterday and you’ve been led to believe that going slow makes everything happen slower and take more time. That’s a mind-block. 

It doesn’t.

In the long run, slowing down brings about lasting change because it gives your body time to adapt to what your mind has already convinced itself of. When your body and mind are in alignment, they are not struggling against the other and you will receive both the physical and psychological empowerment it takes to overcome the attachment you’ve created to whatever it is you’re trying to give up.

For years I tried to give up sugar in my coffee by going cold turkey. I’d be successful for a few days, but the results would always be short lived. After many setbacks, I decided to slow my roll by not attempting to quit sugar in my coffee, but to cut down on sugar in my coffee. 

I must interject here that coffee is a VERY big deal to me. I love my coffee. Back then my daily coffee- at least 3 cups per day- was creamy and sweet. To illustrate the sweetness factor, my Tim Horton’s order was a double/double– yep, that’s double cream/double sugar. Very sweet. 

When I made the decision to cut down on my sugar, I told myself that I would have one cup per day made in my usual sweet way. Any coffee beyond that one cup would be cream only. And so began the process of eliminating sugar in my coffee.

A process. 

At first I spent a lot of time thinking about that one sweet cup. Would I have it first or save it for later? Big decisions, I know. 😁

But gradually, the oddest thing happened: I found that my one sweet cup needed to be less and less sweet over time. I was putting less sugar into my cup and yet, week by week, it was tasting sweeter to me.

So I readjusted again and decided I’d have sugar in my coffee only when I was buying one somewhere as a treat.

The Tim Horton’s double/double eventually became a coffee with cream and sugar.

Then just cream.

Then eventually black coffee or coffee with a splash of cream became my go-to because my taste buds had adapted to and favored the taste of the coffee rather than the sweetness of the sugar, resulting in less cravings for sugar, leading to less sugar consumption overall.

My initial realization that I no longer even liked creamy sweet coffee was one of those, “wow, when did that happen?” moments that make change appear as if it somehow happened by magic. Which, in essence, it did.

The magic of small daily disciplines. You’ll find I speak of these often.

Try giving yourself some time and you’ll often find that some things we consider an uphill battle only appear that way because we’re going about them in a manner that does not serve us.

Slow down, stop struggling, trust in your power, and let nature take its course.