Daily Practice is “How We Get To The Tipping Point”
This just in from one of my readers: "How do we get to the tipping point where we live our new perspective without regressing to our old viewpoints and strategies?" - Peter H.
It’s a great question Peter, thanks for asking. And I don’t think there has been a one of us who have not at some point in our path (or many points) wondered "when the heck is all this work I’ve been doing on myself gonna kick in without a whole lot of work to keep it from backsliding?"
The quick answer is: by having a daily practice and sticking to it even when we don’t stick to it. Fall off the Path and climb back on again as soon as we remember the Path is there. Don’t beat ourselves up for falling off, just take that as a golden opportunity to become even more Conscious and Aware.
We all need to get that there is no one-shot magic pill that you take once and BOOM! New life assured for all time. Nope, doesn’t work that way. According to standard psychological measures, anything we wish to make a habit takes a minimum of thirty days continuous practice to put into longterm memory. And as far as I’ve found, that’s just the beginning - what you have to do to get it into your consciousness again and again on a daily basis. Doesn’t mean you’re "home free" by a long shot though.
If you really want to make a new change hold every day, then DO IT every day. If that means having a new viewpoint, then use your favorite energy therapy method to install that viewpoint, again and again, every day. Meditate on what you want as a sacred practice.
Ghandi said: "Be the change you wish to see in the world". And as you live that change, keep checking to see what the strength of the new viewpoint is (or whatever your new perspective might have you do, be or have) before you practice. If not 100% - even 110%, then you still need to practice. If you find yourself slipping, you still need to practice.
Will the need to practice ever stop? Probably. In time you’ll find these things you want are engrained, like creases in old leather into the fabric of your life. Remember when you first learned a skill like driving a car? In the beginning, for the first year or so, it was a tricky operation coordinating many parts at once. You may have broken a sweat just thinking about all there was to coordinate. A few years later, you’re an old pro, with no need to run through that mental checklist you probably had when you first started out.
When you can smile about the thing you practiced over and it is no longer a stressor but a part of you, then it is time to let that thing go and replace it with another….or not, as you choose.
But do get used to the idea that practice is a daily thing. Just like brushing your teeth. In fact, that’s a great time to do this kind of practice. When you get up in the morning and head into the bathroom - rejoice! You’ve got five or ten minutes, brushing, shaving and so on, that you can also engage in practice and meditation on the kind of person you want to be this day.
Even the Dalai Lama, experienced monk and meditator that he is, says that he deeply values his daily practice. Not because he fears backsliding, but because it reminds him of who he wants to be and indeed…who he *is*. Over and over, daily practice. His state of being as ours, is reinforced by daily practice.
And when I speak of practice, this is not a religious thing, but the act of recreating anew each day the world you want to live in, beginning with the only thing in it that you can change: yourself.
We all want the magic pill, the "one shining moment that changes everything forever". And we do have those moments, but to use the zen saying, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightement, chop wood, carry water." It’s the same with installing, living and being from a new perspective.
Have a stellar day Peter, thanks for this question!
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