Retraining

I’ve been practicing a piano piece to accompany the children in church so they can sing it for Mother’s Day in a couple of weeks.  While the song isn’t particularly challenging, there is a spot in it that my fingers just don’t want to play correctly.  I’m having to focus on that spot and play it slowly, over and over and over again.  I know that eventually, I won’t have to think about this spot and that my fingers will know what to do — muscle memory.

Our brains are the same way.  There might be particular moments that frustrate us, and we want to relapse into old patterns and react in ways that don’t serve us.  However, with careful attention, we can learn to slow down, and intentionally choose our course of action (instead of reacting).  We will need to repeat this over and over until it becomes our automatic reaction.

I used to get frustrated with myself, because it seemed like I was always facing the same battle and my same weaknesses over and over again.  When was I finally going to get it right?  What I didn’t realize is that I was being blessed with the opportunity to try, and try again, to retrain my brain into better patterns.  Because I was learning line upon line, I couldn’t see the slight, imperceptible changes in my character, but I can see them now.

Be patient with yourself.  The master is creating a masterpiece.