Hello Beautiful Souls,
Having a morning practice has become a bit of a thing, and you might be wondering if you should have one, or you might be wanting some motivation to keep one going…
For those of us that have a hard time being consistent, this gets especially sticky… should I start yet another thing that I’m just going to quit later?
Argh.
But ‘everyone’ says they’re so good for me!
Ok, ok.
I started up a morning practice recently, and it has been AMAZING!
I even stumbled upon a podcast discussing ‘the science’ behind what makes them so great… (Having a BS, that usually makes my eyes roll. We can back up anything with science. We just need to find a study with the results we want and voila, it’s backed.)
All of this made me wonder, if my morning practice is actually this magic why don’t I want sing from the roof tops the all it’s many accolades?
Because of this:
What if we look at this from a wider frame, so that the question becomes not ‘should I have a morning practice?’ Or ‘should I have an evening one?’ Or ‘should I have a practice at all?’
And, instead, we ask, ‘WHY do I want a practice in the first place?‘ ‘What do I want out of it?’ ‘What am I not doing or being right now that I think a practice will help with?’
We can get so lost in the hype, that morning practice is good for us (or evening, or whenever), that we forget to examine why we would want to do it in the first place.
If you don’t have a why, you’ve answered the question already:
No why = no practice.
Easy.
(You can stop reading here. Off you go with your bad self!)
Another frame for this WHY question is, ‘is there something in my life that I want to address or change?’
(This could be literally anything!)
- Is there some state I want to cultivate?
- Like less anger and more calm, more confidence, more direction, more determination, more openness to receiving, more pleasure in my life etc., etc.?
- Or an action or set of actions?
- Like do I want to start every day with a list of priorities? Do I want to have dance breaks between work sessions? Do I want to get off my devices, stretch and relax my body before bed?
- Or anything else you want to ‘work on’
If so, now you have grounds for practice.
Sweet!
I love practices.
I use them constantly!
And, as someone once said, the best practice is one that you will do!
So, morning, evening, afternoon, when ever you choose to do it, get clear with your why first. Have a goal.
And though I’m not good at doing the same thing over and over, I am terrific at being consistent with something that is helping me… meaning I know the why (the goal) established above, and I can see that the practice (or other life style change) is helping me BE there.
… And now back to that pesky time of day question …
What time of day to do them?
And then there’s how often and how long to do each practice?
Well, the science says… Heh.
In my experience of helping hundreds of people create practices, I will point you back to the idea that ‘the best practice is one that you will do’, so answer these by feeling into what you’re actually willing to do. Scale that back a bit, because you’re probably overestimating your motivation and start from there. And adjust as life happens.
For example, if you think ‘I’m going to practice 7 days a week for 20 minutes a day,’ you probably won’t. Sorry.
First realize that doing something everyday is a big leap, from 0 to 100 is a lot to ask of yourself. Instead, think about your schedule and where you have things that you do now that you’re willing to sacrifice for your practice. Yep, since no moment of your day you’re doing nothing, your new practice is going to have to replace something. For most people, cutting into scrolling time is a good place to start. This will also help you determine time of day.
Second, 20 minutes might be long to start with. Generally, I halve whatever time a client comes up with and suggest that they start with that and see how it goes. They can always do more. Plus, if you think you can do twice as much, it’s easier to convince yourself when the time comes to do it for half of the time.
That’s it…
Now you can work out
your why,
your what,
your when,
your how often (frequency) and
how long (number of minutes);
…and you’ll be ready to reap the benefits!
Enjoy your practice, and may it serve you well.
You’re welcome to reply with suggestions, reflections, and to let me know how it goes.