On Practice, deep or otherwise

So a fair slug of what this blog is for is to figure out how the life I currently live is aligned – or can be aligned – with the best practices for the things I think are important.And since for both writing and prayer DAILY is purportedly critical, I use this space to explore […]

“on the obstacles”

Susan Piver (a Buddhist meditation teacher) used the above title for her email today — it began: Q: Susan, I have trouble committing myself to the cushion… please address this. A: We all have difficulty with this. I totally understand. When you sit on the cushion, you’re agreeing to sit down with the unknown. Sometimes […]

small steps (forward)?

I /have/ found a ‘pull’– weekly planning. I sat down yesterday to sort thru the week ahead, bc I’ve been feeling on the edge of losing stuff/getting blindsided. Turns out I’d missed two full weeks! I feel better, so I come back. Habit-forming.

Aha moment: Meditation time seems the same as rumination time 90% of my practice. Rumination, I’ve learned, is pointless. Ergo… . Hard to feel a ‘pull’ when that’s the case.

but i need to SEE my vision

One of the ideas-to-explore I jotted down has to do with my semi-routines. I complain that I don’t have many actual habits. Toothbrushing, for example. I make a conscious choice to brush my teeth each day. (Or don’t. But I’m not supposed to talk about that; discussing details of my sex life is more acceptable […]

well, really, what’s it look like

Today’s flipped upside-down, except for the swimming. (I did haul myself out of bed and into the pool by 7:15 a.m.) Lots of paid-work—for me—and now, in the evening, reading learning thinking and, oh, look! blogging. And I am feeling tired, more tired than I would’ve been if the day went right-side up. Tired, I […]

draw me in…

Weaving through all my reading, I’ve pulled out this thread: a steady habit embeds something that pulls you into it. Why? For starters, will (pushing) is tied more to conscious thought. Paraphrasing from Your Brain at Work [8], conscious thought happens in your prefrontal cortex, which is the newest and most energy-hungry part of the […]