Jan 11, 2015

Making Adjustments to My Practice - Days 7 through 11

Yes, I am alive.

In case you didn't know: On December 31, 2014 I set the goal of doing nine Daily Health Practices every day during January 2015.

Days 1 through 6 went on pretty smoothly, accomplishing to do between seven and nine practices every day. After that the road got rough. Too much work, too little sleep, improper nutrition and unhealthy choices were some of the limiting factors to my regular practice. The results were not pleasant. My energy levels went down, my mood wasn’t great and my overall performance decreased.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I did not spend the last five days eating potatoes on the couch while watching T.V. I still managed to do at least four different practices every day while simultaneously managing my business, education, family and all those areas of life that need care. Again, it is about balance and this time I failed to find the place of stability.

The last few days were quite stressful, especially those days were I was not able to eat or sleep well. There were also a couple of unexpected situations which also threw me off. None the less, I took the beating and now I am getting right back up and getting right back into my practice.

So what did I learn from these days?

I learned that on a day to day basis the practice can only take you so far. On other words, you can meditate an hour a day every day for a week, but sooner or later you are bound to get sad, angry or stressed and any of these will shift your day. As far as I know this is how this process of life works. It is important to be patient and to be kind to ourselves when things don’t go the way we want them to.

I learned that the greater the goal the greater our level of self-acceptance must be. Paradoxically, if we have high levels of self-acceptance we may not set any goals. I must continue to work towards my goals and at the same time, not be disappointed when I fall short.

Finally, I learned that blogging takes A LOT OF TIME, especially at the beginning. Writing and publishing each blog entry was taking me over an hour. It was time for me to find an equilibrium so that blogging time didn’t take out practice time.

So what now?

These last few days I also spent a great deal of time contemplating on these projects. The website, the blog, their purpose and how to go about it. I feel it is my heart’s desire to share my perspectives, insights and all the useful information I am learning along my journey. There is so much good stuff out there and I want you to benefit from it too.

Unfortunately I am still partially human and there is so much I can do with this body in time. I will continue to fine-tune and find a sustainable way to continue this project.

There may not be a Master Practice that as soon as you start you never miss a day. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? If I come across it I will surely let you know. In the meantime I will stick to the nine practices I chose and strive towards my goal. Cultivating the benefits of moving towards health.

And what about failure?

Lets see if Michael Jordan can asnwer that one for us :)