PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT!

An ounce of practice is worth a ton of learning.

         Anonymous

Doing poor or feeble practice in the worst of times is far more meritorious than doing a good practice in the best of times.

Prashant Iyengar                                                                                                                                               

Practice is a taste of the sacred. It is about health – mental, psychological, physical and spiritual health. Fitness happens quickly with a big energy output. Health takes a long time. This is where practicing comes in. We learn to do it by doing it.

You cannot imagine the conversations I have convincing myself to practice. When practice is intended for the end of day, often I procrastinate as long as I can until I might not do it at all.

People who know me cannot believe this about me. They always tell me, “You’re so disciplined.” Little do they know that the conversations I have with myself give meaning to the word struggle.

What I know from years of practicing is that it transforms me. There are dragons to battle in the world - frustration, despair - as well as demons within. But there is a possibility of transfiguration with practice. Practice makes me different. I know how hard it is. If I don’t want to do it, I do it anyway.

Think of practice as having a flashlight to explore dark (scary) places. The more we practice the more our eyes get used to the dark. The challenge is to switch on the flashlight

 The glory and splendor of practice is like a telescope with immense power, opening gradually and incrementally when the sun sets and the dark presents itself. The greater the opening, the greater the space, the more observation, the more we can see ‘in the dark’.

There is so much more to being a human being than we realize. When we penetrate inwardly, we make a connection to the divine. We meet our true selves. 

Ultimately, what I learn from practice is that it does not make perfect and that I can not control anything - except what I put in my mouth, literally and figuratively. Yet practice gets inside like the most delicious food.

MOMENTS

The wise don't expect to find life worth living; they make it that way.

     We have in our lives only a few moments of joy and moments of wonder - mixed sometimes with each other and with other moments. We persist in thinking that such moments only have worth if we can make them go on forever. We speak of beauty or transcendence. Or other things. We reach an age and we realize that a moment, or if we are lucky, a handful of moments was our life. These moments are all and they are everything. We must live for the moments but we are so anxious pursuing everything else - the future usually - with anchors that pull us down, so busy that we sometimes miss the moments.

     I celebrate little things. I am more than I ever thought I could be and I am
grateful that I don't take small moments for granted and grateful that I will look back on my life and know I drank up every moment, soaked up the good and the bad.

SWIMMING LESSONS

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

SWIMMING LESSONS

Plunge in

 It is the eventuality. Life is not coming to us. We have to go to it. People stand at the edge of a pool or in the shallow part of the ocean. Waiting for what? The only way to get used to it is to get in – plunge, jump, stride or dive. We’re not going anywhere if we wait on the shore. Are we waiting for life to begin?

Do ‘it’

The dreaded thing. Send a thank you note; show up for a dinner; call and apologize - even when you don’t feel like it. It is always a surprise. Frankly, I wake up every day and think I will skip swimming. Then doing it changes everything.

Adapt

We can get used to anything when it is good for us. For decades I swam in the same pool. I learned to swim in a new place. At first I wondered if I would be comfortable getting up in the morning and not going to my old place. One day I realized I didn’t think about it anymore.

Be flexible

I swam in the morning for years. Then life interfered and I had to go at other times. It was liberation to discover if I didn’t swim in the morning, I could still swim! I was free.

Stay open-minded

Learning to swim in a new place – even in a new place in the pool - is like learning to sit in a new place. I see classmates come to class rushing to claim the place where they sat or practiced during class a week earlier or the day before, so anxious to have their ‘real estate’. It is very important to have different angles and viewpoints and to let the world have a different slant on us. We behave differently when we sit in the front row instead of the back row. Move around. What is crucial is the ability to be in different places in our heads and in our hearts.

           You never know what is going to happen

Life is full of surprises and the greatest surprises come from within. Often I think I am too tired or decide (ahead of time) that I will only do half my swim. Unexpectedly I have the best swim of my week or a longer swim than I have had in ages. Who can tell ahead of time?

           Learn from others

Keep improving. We can always get ‘better’ and we can always grow. Although I am swimming since I was walking, recently I took a swimming lesson. My stroke improved. I got some pointers about my kicking. It took a few weeks to integrate what I learned and to get comfortable but I did improve and I am a better swimmer.

           Get the most out of what there is

Some days I have to rush or I get to the pool a bit later than I planned. I have less time than I wanted. I make the most out of what there is. Something is always better than nothing.

Do not put obstructions in front of yourself 

We can learn to do things we never thought we could do. The biggest obstruction of all is comparing ourselves to someone else. There is always someone who is a stronger swimmer or a prettier swimmer, a faster swimmer. Why think about them? They are bigger, younger, and different. Give all the attention to yourself. It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

           Change does not mean decline

All things change, nothing is extinguished. When I was younger I swam relatively fast. I have slowed down. I don’t do ‘heats’ anymore. But I am strong in other ways. I have endurance. It takes longer but it gets accomplished. Stagnation is degenerative but change is evolving. Change is the only evidence of life.

Stay present

When I swim I try to keep focused on swimming. Where are my eyes looking? Am I breathing into each lung evenly; kicking with equal strength? My mind wanders and then I work to get my focus back and to really think about what I am doing in the moment. It is good practice. (I confess I have made shopping lists or decided what I was going to wear to a party while swimming. I sort out a lot. But I keep coming back to my swim.)

Set modest goals

We can always exceed them.

It’s good when its over – good that it was done and good that it is done.

A SMALL STONE

All glory comes from daring to begin.

-       Anonymous

Ninety-nine percent of life is showing up.

    -         Woody Allen

A Small Stone

A teacher once said something that has remained with me ever since. What he said comes up in every life situation that requires ‘action’ (which often is no action). Whenever I need to take on anything new or focus to make myself better (heal the world, write a great novel, or lose five pounds) I remember his words.

It happened during my first yoga workshop. It rained in torrents the entire week of the workshop. I mention this because it mirrored the intensity of the hours we spent soaking up a deluge of knowledge and information from this exceptional teacher.

          Each practice began with three OM’s and a Sanskrit invocation that they say if practiced twelve thousand times makes it’s meaning clear. I’ve been practicing it ever since and I have no idea if that is twelve thousand times. I never counted but it counts to me that I do it.

Physical work was intertwined with knowledge and information that was braided with insight into the mental body, the emotional body, the psychological body and the spiritual body. The teaching was complex and stitched into a formative experience for me. There were anecdotes that transcend the telling but seeped way in. The lesson of the ‘worthwhile’: it is earned with sweat. Nothing heartfelt or worth having is gotten without toil. Ultimately, the greatest pleasures of life are earned this way.

At the end of the workshop someone asked our teacher how to practice, how to start and how long to practice once you get started. The teacher was eating some dried fruit and nuts and continued chewing for a few moments (a typical Yogi) before he spoke.

“If you go out and try to pick up a big rock, or a boulder, you will struggle to lift it and to throw it any distance.” He paused again and then went on:

“If you go out and pick up a small stone and toss it, you will throw that small stone a great distance; a much greater distance than the big boulder.”

This wisdom over years keeps gathering weight and meaning. This idea of the small stone became a boulder, a solid reliable rock. I remember when my son who was learning to walk: he was four years old and defying the prognosis that he might never walk. It was one small step at a time. He walks.

Let us gather inward the best parts of ourselves. That means working on giving our self things beside ourselves; new endeavors; continuing to be the best we can be. It begins with one small step, one small stone. Instead of a heave ho, try a toss.