Every morning I roll out my yoga mat and connect with my body. It feels delicious to move and stretch and bring consciousness to every part of my body. Eventually I come to stillness and listen – to my body, my soul, my mind. I embrace everything that arises and give it space to be heard and expressed. It’s a sacred and non-negotiable part of my day that I always look forward to. From time to time I add other things to my morning practice. It could be journaling or visualisation or dancing, depending on what I need. My daily practice helps me feel more grounded, connected to myself, aligned with my spirit.
I first learned about the power of practice in my experiences with yoga and meditation. When I committed myself to daily yoga and meditation, I started to feel the positive effects on my body and mind. I understood the meaning of the sanskrit word sadhana – a disciplined spiritual practice. Later I applied the concept of sadhana to create my own practices based on what I want to cultivate in myself. For example, if I’m lacking in self-love I might set aside 10 minutes a day to deliberately love every part of me, no matter how flawed or broken. If I’m lacking joy I might make it a part of my practice to put on a fun song and dance, even if I don’t feel like it.
Regular practice acts as an anchor to help you connect with yourself and cultivate the qualities you need the most. If you want to grow an apple tree you’ll need to put in some work and tend to it regularly. You know that when you start going to the gym regularly your body gets stronger. Same thing with “inner work” practices. Wherever your attention goes, energy follows.
Most psychotherapists won’t tell you about practices, and I think it’s an oversight. I often recommend practices for my clients depending on their needs – it could be journaling, meditation, nervous system regulation. With commitment they soon start to see results in how they feel.
The beauty and magic of committed regular practice is in the compounded results that become more visible over time. It literally starts to rewire your brain, creating new neural pathways.
If your mind is used to looking for everything that’s wrong with you and punishing yourself for it, and you want to change that, you might start a practice of finding everything that’s wonderful about you and loving every part of you. If you stick to it for a month or so, you may find one day that your mind starts to automatically generate kind and loving thoughts towards yourself.
Having the discipline to do your daily practice is an act of self-love and self-care. And just like brushing your teeth every day, your practice needs to be non-negotiable in order to be effective.
How to figure out what sort of practice you need? Feel inside yourself. What’s hurting? What’s lacking? What would make the biggest difference on your state of mind?
If you’re struggling with self-loathing and harsh self-judgement, you could benefit from a practice that cultivates self-compassion (I highly recommend the RAIN practice from Tara Brach’s Radical Compassion book).
If you’re struggling with anxiety and constantly feeling on edge, you could benefit from a nervous system regulation practice (here’s a version of it taught by one of my teachers Tina Nance).
The most important thing is that your practice needs to be regular and clearly defined. For example, rather than saying “I’ll love myself every day” which sounds a bit vague, you can say “I’ll set aside 10 minutes after breakfast to close my eyes and breathe love into every part of my being”. Can you feel the difference? The second one feels so much more tangible and measurable.
I hope I have inspired you to create a daily practice of your own. If you want to share what your practice is, let me know in the comments below – I would love to hear from you. And if you want some suggestions you’re welcome to email me.
