A little while ago I brought forth the idea of what I’ve called “Practice Notes” — personal practical experiments in various areas of creativity and spirituality.
The point in these “practices” is to try to embed them into my life where I have otherwise previously avoided them, due to my own resistance, fear, and anxiety.
The first two practices have been . . . interesting.
Practice 001 was all about meditation. The goal was to meditate twice a day for a month. On the whole, this did not pan out as I’d expected or planned. I did not, overall, meet this goal, but I did, overall, meditate more regularly. Where I fell short was really focusing on meditating in the morning. The evening meditations came much more easily, not just in time of day, but in how I was able to “settle in”.
I experimented with various sitting positions, but the two that I came find easiest were the Burmese position, and seiza, or a kneeling position. Seiza, surprisingly, has felt most natural to me, and allows me to keep an aligned back while remaining relaxed throughout. It’s also the sitting position ideal for the particular types of Reiki meditations I’ve been practicing. This doesn’t mean it was easy — rarely did I finish a meditation in this position after which my legs weren’t lifeless limbs, buzzing with cold.
While I wasn’t as adherent to the twice-a-day regimen, I did find myself practicing meditation much more regularly, and the results have been notable when I have done it consistently. When this happens, I feel more present, more settled, more “tuned in” to the energy of the moment, and I’ve barely scratched the surface on this effort (there is no “endpoint” here, but there is an evolving practice and technique I’d like to master — even if I simply master consistently doing it, that’ll be enough). So, I aim to continue this practice, and do want to try to strive for this twice-a-day minimum.
Now, as for reading four books in a month (Practice 002), this was a disaster. Let me start by saying I do believe it’s absolutely possible to achieve this goal, but for the purposes of developing the habit of reading more, I do not think this particular approach was best for what I was trying to achieve.
First, because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, like many, I’ve been reactively glued to the news, trying to figure out more updates, anxiously awaiting “what comes next.” This fear-based thinking is counterproductive, I’ve learned, and not conducive to good health (mentally or physically) during a time when health is most important. This was a staggering, but helpful, realization, and is allowing me to step back and release what I simply can’t control (the bubble of things I can control in this situation is relatively small and straightforward; beyond that, it’s in the Universe’s hands).
Second, saying “read these specific four books in 30 days” felt very restrictive and assignment-based, and by doing so I felt less enticed to actually read those books. Reading, in my view, should feel like it is enriching your soul, not a chore or assignment that needs to be achieved. Reading should be about filling you up with stories and information that feed your soul and mind. Again, this is how I feel about reading, so I naturally set myself up for failure by trying this. Which is fine, that’s the whole point of this effort.
My other failure in these practices was to take consistent notes. The notes, of course, is the whole essence of “Practice Notes” — takeaways, things I’ve found, things I’m learning, etc. But taking consistent notes on these efforts provides a glimpse into what I’m actually learning at the end of these efforts, a look back, so to speak, at how things evolved as I worked on these things.
Likewise, what both of these efforts showed me was that this all comes down to how I’m intentionally using my time (reality: I haven’t been intentional using my time). Much of my approach to how I spend my day has been predominantly reactive versus proactive, an easy approach during a worldwide pandemic, but not an ideal one as noted above.
So, being more intentional with my time is actually serving as the basis for Practice 003 — Becoming a Digital Minimalist. This is my second attempt at the digital declutter outlined in Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. My aim with this is to simply open more space and remove distractions so that I can focus more, with more intention, on the things that I want to be focusing more on — presence, creative work, spiritual practice.
In tandem with that digital minimalist effort, I’m also giving the “reading more” effort another go, albeit in a different way. Practice 004 is about reading on a daily basis following a regimen outlined by the late great Ray Bradbury.
With these two new practices, I do intend to provide daily updates and notes, and those will be updated daily on their respective notes pages.
As I continue to trip, fall, get up, and trip again, I’m learning a lot. And there’s a reason for that.
And to that point, I’ll end with a reference to one of the most memorable exchanges in the movie Batman Begins, part of one of my favorite film franchises and trilogies, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy:
