365 Inspirations—108: The Magic Number

I made it to 108 inspirations! It's that magic number again. Today I spent quality time with my husband, took a walk and went to yoga, all the while thinking of the fact that I made it to this day again. Here's the blog post I wrote back in 2010 on day 108 of my 365 Lessons! 

108 days of blogging have arrived. This number is a very important one to me. It is a very auspicious number in many religions and traditions and, to me, it symbolizes both devotion and balance.

Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat, Pray, Love, organized her book with 108 tales or stories. Here's what she had to say in her Introduction about the significance of that number:

The traditional japa mala is strung with 108 beads. Amid the more esoteric circles of Eastern philosophers, the number 108 is held to be most auspicious, a perfect three digit multiple of three, it's components adding up to nine, which is three threes. And three, of course, is the number representing supreme balance, as anyone who has ever studied either the Holy Trinity or a simple bar stool can plainly see.

So today's lesson is about staying devoted to a plan by keeping your balance. It is easy to come up with an idea. We are all full of GREAT ideas of what we want to do and how we are going to do it. But when it comes time to put those ideas into action, we lose our balance or fall off track sooner than we anticipated. Often times it just seems too difficult or the road seems too long.

Having complete devotion in something you are doing means following through even in the difficult times. If you are raising children, you are a devoted person. When things get difficult, you can't just say, "Oh, I changed my mind, I don't want to raise a kid after all." I suppose this has happened, but most people are in it for the long haul.

Being devoted to someone or something means you are in it for the long haul. Now I know that circumstances change and sometimes it is not in our best interest to stay with something if it is not serving us anymore. If we've tried and tried and tried and what we are doing is causing us more misery than joy, then it's most likely time to reevaluate the situation and set up a new plan of action.

On the other hand, if you give up because the road starts to get a bit bumpy, you have lost your devotion or maybe you were never really that devoted to the plan to begin with.

On January 1st, I devoted myself to this blog and 365 lessons. So far so good. I've been through some bumps in the road, hit writers block, maneuvered around some sharp turns, but I'm still truckin' along. I love it!

One thing that helps me keep going is balance. I try to balance writing with yoga, meditation and walking. Sometimes we are so close to what we are doing that all we can see is chaos and confusion.

When I get stuck there, I find it helpful to to step off the path for a minute and get a broader perspective. If you are spinning your wheels around and around in the same circle you need to take a break from it for awhile.

Go down to the beach and take a long walk on the seashore, catch a movie, meditate, do yoga, meet a friend for coffee, and get out of your head for awhile.

Keeping a balance has been the key for me. With balance, I can keep going. With balance I am focused on one step at a time. With one step at a time, I will stay on the course I set out for. I don't need to wonder how it will happen. All I have to do is keep my balance, stay devoted to what I set out to do and keep walking, one step at a time.

Are there any numbers, dates, or times that have special meaning for you?