Do you keep your promises? Most people keep promises made to others better than they keep them to themselves. For example, I promised with three other women that I would go to bed at an agreed-upon time. We considered it a covenant of health. And sure enough, I slept well. Then one woman broke our covenant and had to drop out. But I promised myself that I would keep that bedtime even if it were just me.

Guess what, I didn’t keep my promise. I fell asleep in my chair and woke up an hour past our curfew. It upset me that I had broken a promise to the other two but most of all I was disappointed that I had broken a promise to myself about health.

So rather than mentally beat up on myself, I took it as a sign that my health could use another boost. I already had a healthy diet. I worked out and walked. And I was back on my bedtime curfew. What could I do to better support my health? I meditated on it for a few days and came up blank.

Thankfully Spirit answers in many different ways. Two days later my son witnessed me having a sneezing fit immediately after eating. He suggested that the combination of foods might be the problem. The foods individually were healthy but together their sugars seemed to up my cortisol levels.

I promised never to eat that combination again. But yesterday when I searched the refrigerator for a meal, only the combination I had promised not to eat was there. Sure enough, I had a sneezing fit.

This time I realized my lesson wasn’t around health but around better structuring my promises. I now structure my promises. I set the alarm to remind me that it is time to go to bed. I take empty food containers to the store with me so I will remember to buy a refill. And I better plan my meals.

So if you break a promise, look to see what energy (heart quality) you need to love more. It was not health, as I first thought, but structure that Spirit was reminding me to love. So keep meditating and asking until you find the energy needed and you will be able to keep your promises. Kept promises can become the physical sculptors for the qualities of your heart.