Break Your Own Rules

I have a confession to make. I'm an absolute task master. It's true, I'm a natural born disciplinarian. A self starter from way back in the day. It is not something that I learned, or forced myself to do. I was born this way. I make my own rules, and I always have. I came out of the womb a rule-maker. Nobody assigned me any rules to follow, but when there were guidelines I could latch on to, I loved to follow them. If there were no rules, I requested them. Mom and dad did not give me chores, so I suggested that my brother and I be assigned chores, and earn an allowance based on the work we did. Needless to say, my brother was not too thrilled about this set-up and my parents thought it was amusing. The rest is history.
I actually enjoy setting goals and following through to accomplishment. Here's a little secret though: I can get very rigid and follow rules simply for the sake of meeting the demand or hitting the mark. As I say about myself, I like to deliver. This can leave me feeling empty when I am enslaved to the very rules that I created in the first place. What once was a pleasure has become my duty, and I feel bound to it for no other reason than, I said I would. Well guess what else I am? A rule breaker. A beater of my own drum. A rebel and an inventor. Every so often, when I feel responsible to out dated ideas, or after an extended period of work work work, I like to tear off the shackles, and break away from the "same old."
For years, I can marry myself to set of habits or guidelines, and in a moment I can cut loose and run like the wind, away from my former life. Or I can stop and drop into a stillness that allows the swirl around me to slow and I get very simple and clear. I am in a renewal period like this right now. So I have released a lot of what binds me to a persona that I have, or an idea that I have of myself in order to rediscover who I am today, and who I am becoming. This includes stopping the same physical movements that I have been habitually doing and moving in other ways. Dance is the movement of choice for my break-away moment. Moving away from the same rigid and practiced asana into the more fluid and free form circular, and lateral movements of dance has been freeing and renewing. I have been unplugging from hot yoga practice, which I got into a habit of doing over the past year, and immersing myself into the elements by hiking in nature and taking my deep breaths there.
The point is: do something different!
If there is a lack of luster, or if you've lost the pep in your step, perhaps you need to break your own rules. What new movements can you make in order to embody a new aspect of yourself? What rituals and habits have lost their momentum? What new treasures can you find from within?
Have a beautiful and re-creative week!