Knowing a better way isn’t enough to improve your
life. How easy is it for you to put a new way of being into practice?
Even though I’m spiritual rather than religious,
I’d like to start with Matthew 7:24-27, a segment Matthew writes as being
spoken by Jesus about practice:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is
like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the
streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not
fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these
words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who
built his house on sand. The rain cam down, the streams rose, and the winds
blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
First, I certainly don’t mean my words; I mean the words you hear and feel in your own heart, the
words that speak to you and your spirit, the words spoken directly from Source to you. Second, I’m not calling anyone
foolish; though, each one of us has our turn at practicing foolishness at one
time or another. That’s just part of the learning and growing experience,
whether we like it or not. Third, as I opened with, knowing something is not
the same as practicing it, ever; and practice really does make progress. It
forms the solid rock foundation of self-trust and trust in Source, even or
particularly when we feel ourselves temporarily in the valley rather than on
the mountaintop.
How do you learn or train yourself to practice
what will improve you or your daily experience of life? You start by deciding
what it is you wish to practice, say, “Choose inner peace.” You likely don’t
have to wait long to have an experience where this choice would be a good
practice, and you forget, maybe for a
day, week, month or longer, because emotions run strong. Once you’re calmer,
you remember you did make that choice. You think on this, perhaps admonish
yourself for forgetting, which I don’t recommend. I prefer a gentle reminder
like, “Okay, I forgot to remember this time; but eventually I will remember my
choice.” Maybe you forget a few more times until one day, when triggered, you
do remember and say to yourself, “New program: Choose inner peace.” You figure
out how to do that and put it into practice. Please keep in mind that practice
does not mean “perfect.” It means practice.
Each time, it becomes easier to choose it, that
is, to practice your choice, to engage your new program, even if following
through presents challenges that ask for more or different inner work, insight,
and creativity on your part. As you practice, you feel your evolution and
personal power, as well as your relationship with yourself and Source move up a
notch. And it feels good. It feels right. You find you pay attention for other
opportunities to practice your choice, or other opportunities to make similar
beneficial choices. The new practice, and the evolution it causes in you,
starts to feel more natural, more comfortable than not practicing or evolving,
despite challenges.
We tend to make an external change first, when we
desire improvement, which may work for a while. Then we revert back to the
original behavior, because Change Happens
from the Inside Out, never the other way around. We may even talk to others
about how we’re going to change. There is a school of thought that says if you
tell others your goal or intention, you stick to it. But that isn’t always the
case, is it? And if you don’t stick to it, you feel not-so-good about yourself;
and you may waste energy fretting about what others may think of you.
I recommend you get to know yourself. Maybe it
works best for you to tell others what you intend. Maybe it works best for you
to keep silent and do what’s required then speak about it only when people
comment on what’s different, improved, and ask what you’re doing. Maybe it
works best for you to share the inner-work process you’re experiencing as you
continue to where or how you intend to be.
Example: You want to lose weight, so you diet.
Diets work only so long, because of our tendency to revert back to familiar
behaviors, and because we tend to not like to feel uncomfortable and limited.
But once you have a different mindset about wellbeing, you’ll make lifestyle
choices that have greater and lasting effects no diet alone ever promotes or
provides, especially if you feel you suffer in some manner from a diet. It’s
the same for any change in yourself or your life you desire, intend, and commit
to. Right practice leads to improvements, not suffering.
Here’s something most of us don’t want to hear:
Practice requires experiences, and not all of them are ones the ego-aspect
would prefer. But, you don’t learn math if you never experience it and put it
into practice. You don’t learn how to forgive or be forgiven without one or
more experiences that open this opportunity to you. It’s the same for inner
peace, joy, love, wellbeing, fulfillment, having quality relationships, a
relationship with Source, and so on.
It is never about knowing (mind) what to do only;
it’s about putting what you know into practice (heart). It’s about
head-and-heart alignment about the practice, which can lead you toward the
improvement you desire. Here’s a question: Are you improved in some measure at
the inner level (mindset, perspective, self-trust, inner peace) from what you
were a year ago? Even some improvement counts. No perfectionism, please.
When it comes to Practice Makes Progress, I’m
reminded of a line in the movie, “Eat Pray Love,” where Julia Roberts’
character comments about a man whose continual prayer-plea to a saint was,
“Please, please, please - let me win the lottery.” After years and years of
this, the saint, exasperated, finally said to the man, “My son, please, please,
please - buy a ticket!” Roberts’ character says she finally got it. We are
often like the man, imploring if not pleading with Source for what we want, but
not doing what WE need to as our end of it. Practice, especially the
spiritual-in-nature inner work, is very often if not always, our ticket we need
to “buy,” or rather, buy into.
Remember to ask Source to assist you. Source
always assists you, but it makes a difference to and in you if you become comfortable with asking; and, Source wants to be asked.
Your asking is like an expression of appreciation born of trust in Source. Your
practice can help you stay in or return more easily to a state of appreciation.
Commit to the practices that lead to progress, with Source’s assistance, and
you and your life will improve, perhaps gradually; but that’s always better
than the opposite. Buy your “ticket.” It’s a good practice, one you’ll
appreciate.
Practice makes progress.
© Joyce Shafer
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