Is Your Practice on Auto-Pilot?
Transforming Internal & External Distractions
How is your practice feeling lately?
Our routines, even our practice time, can fall into auto pilot so easily. Too easily.
We feel safe in the patterns that we create, so it’s no surprise that we fall into auto pilot, but if you’ve dialed into your practice as a path of spiritual growth, you also know that pulling ourselves out of auto pilot is where the healing, recalibration, inner peace, expansion, and collective liberation are found.
“How is your practice feeling lately?” seems rather too vague to get to the heart of your current practice and trajectory. Instead, let’s dial into the specific reflections that follow. Take what you need, of course, and leave some aside for a different time.
Reflections:
What are you attuning to in your practice?
What are you using as fuel in your practice?
What are the effects of your practice?
Reflections are snapshots. They might illuminate things that were outside of your present awareness, from your past, your present, or your trajectory. Welcome all that comes.
Let’s take them one at a time. I’ll give an example, but let your answers come from within.
What are you attuning to in your practice?
Internally: Me? Fatigue shows up in many ways for me. Sometimes it’s from lack of sleep - menopausal insomnia is ROUGH.
Sometimes the lack of sleep is from bad habits - that’s on me (*PRO tip below).
Sometimes fatigue shows up in body parts that worked hard - that feels good, usually.
And then there’s the body fatigue from under exertion, too many hours/days without sufficient movement to keep my body supple and limber. You?
Take a step back from there, if needed, and notice that your body shows up differently moment to moment, day to day, week to week, year to year.
Take yet another step back, or deeper, and notice what the self talk is around how your body is changing.
Yes, all of this is part of your practice.
Externally: Me? The noise at home is always a distraction, as is the traffic/neighbor noise outside, so I practice with earbuds to block out noise and add a soundtrack. When I’m practicing outdoors, traffic noise in the city takes effort to accept without painting it negatively, but the breeze, the birds, the sun, the clouds, and any other natural element inputs fuel my enjoyment tremendously. You?
Consider changing your practice location or schedule if external distractions are robbing you of potentially beautiful practice time.
What are you using as fuel in your practice?
Internal fuel can be ego. You know, those times when you’re using comparison and competition to fuel your practice? That’s ego.
Internal fuel can also be self love. Those times when you listen to your own body for cues of how much movement, stillness, sweat, breath, strength, or surrender is right for the moment, and then you act on those cues? That’s self love in action.
Internal fuel can also be sankalpa, or deep intention/purpose of your practice. What was your fuel the last few times you practiced?
If you want to bring some depth to your practice, step on to your mat or take a seat on your cushion with a single sankalpa for a whole year, or a whole month, or a whole season. Give your practice that constancy and observe what happens: what changes? What is constant?
External fuel isn’t just what you eat, but what you take in through all of your senses. When we process and metabolize what we take in, it may turn into the internal fuel of emotions, but until then, think of it as fuel. Notice what type of fuel your senses have taken in just before practice, because it’s all having an effect: Nourishing food? Unhealthy (for you) food? News? Arguments? Traffic? Needy or ungrateful people? Trauma triggers? Loss and grief? Oppression or manipulation? Hugs? Time with your beloved? Snuggles with your pet? A refreshing walk outdoors?
What patterns do you see when you match your daily/hourly fuel sources and time of practice? Consider changes to your practice schedule, if possible, with the intention of creating the best possible conditions for your own enjoyment of practice.
What are the effects of your practice?
Internal effects for me are easy to list: Peace. Healing. Softening. Self compassion. Self understanding. Forgiveness. Strength. Awareness. Insight.
What are they for you?
External effects for me are easy, too: Compassion for others. Deeper respect for others. Ability to forgive. Ability to keep my cool. Connection. Purpose.
Have you noticed that you see the world differently, and move differently through it, after practice? Have you been practicing consistently enough that others notice it about you, too?
So, one more time: How does your practice feel lately?
If it feels like you’re on auto pilot, or like it’s missing something, I hope you’ll take time to reflect on what’s fueling your practice, or what’s present as a distraction that you may not have noticed. Notice the patterns, and adjust what is needed to keep your practice trajectory going in the direction that you need it to go. You’ll adjust again. It always changes, because you are always changing.
If these questions stir up more than you choose to address right now, please take them one at a time, or in any break down that feels right. Return to them, repeatedly, because our practice changes, always and constantly, just like you do.
Just keep practicing.
That’s the most important part. No expectations. No attachments. Just keep showing up.
*PRO tip from a friend for breaking the late night TV binge habit (brace yourself): 1) LOG OUT of all the apps; 2) DO NOT SAVE the passwords automatically on your device/TV. This can create a barrier just big enough to make you pause and decide whether to choose TV/apps or something else. If you need to take a baby step: pull all your addictive apps from the front page(s) of your phone/device. Out of sight, partially out of mind. Try it and let me know how it works!
