Be Like a Paddle Ball: How to Bounce Back to Yourself - Tiny Buddha

"Picture a small flat paddle (like a small ping-pong paddle) with a rubber ball attached to the center by an elastic string. The goal was to hit the ball with the paddle, watch it fly out and then back, and keep this going for as long as possible, until the ball returns wildly and goes rogue, missing the paddle altogether."

"Other notable events this month included a vacation with a six-hour time change (I find that the older I get, the more challenging it becomes to travel across time zones), a broken (on the second day of vacation) phone that the day after returning home required an entire day of driving back and forth all over town to resolve, my son's new used car (that we just purchased a month prior) broke down and required towing,"

"I arrived at the dentist's office half an hour early (because I had other unavoidable obligations that morning as well) and decided to use this time for my daily meditation. I could feel that the gentle tug to slow down had turned into a more forceful pull. Side note: I'll admit that even though I have a daily meditation practice, I go through periods where I successfully carve time out earlier in"

A paddle ball metaphor illustrates repetitive rebound and loss of control when life becomes hectic. A dental crown popped off while flossing, adding to an already packed month. The month also included a vacation with a six-hour time change, a phone breaking on vacation that required an entire day of driving to resolve, and a recently purchased used car that broke down and needed towing. A dentist appointment was scheduled and time there was used for daily meditation. The meditation revealed an increasing internal pull to slow down. The daily meditation practice is sometimes intermittent despite intentions to carve out time.

Read at Tiny Buddha