No More Sorry

In early January I proposed we could choose a word of the year. Mine was the original word Judglessness. Many of you shared your words. A few that stood out were: Alignment, Change, Expectlessness, Compassion, Empathy, Peace, Stop, Openness, Powerless, and my good friend Roger shared, “My word is Persevere, but I really want to say Lemonade.”

It’s now the end of January, time to layer on another practice. Consider letting go of a word or phrase that you overuse. This is the year of letting go for me. Letting go of stuff, letting go of expectations, obligations, and of course judgments. At first, I thought I’d let go of all cursing. I vowed to give my granddaughter Lucy a dollar for every time I cursed. She already has a solid college fund started thanks to me. However, I have realized there is another word, that I use far too much. It’s the word “Sorry”.

Practicing Presence is about paying attention, noticing our typical tendencies and how we navigate through our days. Our thoughts often become our words, which can become our habits. We can change our bad habits and replace them with healthier habits.

I have a bad habit of saying, “Sorry”, far too much. I wake up and tiptoe downstairs to feed Elsa my cat and my husband hears me, and grumpily gets out of bed. I begin each day by shouting sorry up the steps. I remote start my car and my husband claims it wakes the neighbors. I immediately wrote a note saying, “Sorry” if my car wakes you up in the early AM.” I cross to closely to another person in the gym and quickly say, “Sorry”. I’m constantly apologizing for not hearing my cell phone ring. I won’t bore you with rest of my sorry’s, but trust me, it goes on and on. It’s ridiculous the times I’ve uttered the phrase, “I’m sorry” when I actually haven’t offended anyone or made an error. If I was coaching someone with this tendency, I would suggest that it might be a sign of under confidence. Oh shit, that’s the last thing I want to model for my grandchild. Oops, did I say shit? Sorry.

Have patience, I’m a work in progress. How about you, what word could you try and let go of? If you have a moment, send me your word.