I don\u2019t remember the last time I shot my bow. It\u2019s been at least a few months but I went out there and shot it a couple of days ago. This was something I used to do pretty much daily. First off, I shot at a closer distance than I normally would because it\u2019s been so long. Second, just to get it out of the way, I did terribly. I didn\u2019t expect anything else. <\/p>\n
I see my bow every day. And every day I say, I\u2019m going to shoot it tomorrow. That didn\u2019t happen until a couple of days ago, and yes, the day prior I did say that I was going to shoot it tomorrow. It finally happened. I know, it\u2019s not a big deal. Who cares? I do.<\/p>\n
Sometimes in life we set things aside for whatever reasons. It could be laziness, being too busy, injury, or losing interest. I put it down for quite some time for a couple of reasons. One was that it was causing a lot of pain in my right shoulder, the arm I use to draw back the bowstring. The second reason is a bit more embarrassing to admit, but I found myself getting nervous that some of my neighbors could see me shooting. <\/p>\n
The shoulder has been feeling somewhat better, so I hope to get back to shooting consistently. Regarding the anxiety or nervousness about the neighbors, I don\u2019t know what happened. I\u2019ve been anxious about that before for some reason, it never caused me to completely stop doing it. Sometimes I would look out back and if I noticed neighbors out on their decks or whatever, I simply would skip that day or try again at another time. <\/p>\n
Anxiety, nervousness, fear\u2014pick whichever word you prefer\u2014have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can guess where that came from, but that\u2019s for another potential article. My point here is that sometimes we set things down and never come back to them. Other times we just needed a break and we come back to it. <\/p>\n
If you have valid reasons, like an injury or a change of heart, that\u2019s fine, I think. The thing that was nagging at me is that I love archery and once my shoulder was feeling better I was letting that stupid anxiety thing beat me. I\u2019m 49 years old. I am tired of that thing inside of me beating me. So, I won\u2019t admit it but maybe I checked to see if my neighbors were out yesterday (or maybe I didn\u2019t), but I forced myself to go shoot. <\/p>\n
For me it was a reminder that I still have work to do. It was a reminder that I can be stronger than the dumb voice in my head. It was a reminder that I can both go shoot my bow while also living alongside the anxiety in my mind. And here\u2019s the update: I have now shot my bow twice in three days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t remember the last time I shot my bow. It\u2019s been at least a few months but I went out there and shot it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12,13,15,22,29,32,46],"tags":[53,54,55],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accountability","category-creativity","category-depression","category-engagement","category-habits","category-life","category-motivation","category-time","tag-archery","tag-consistency","tag-self-discipline","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n