It’s hard. Doing something daily is hard. It’s not like brushing your teeth, or eating breakfast. The mind has to be really strong, or really flexible. I’m still not the strong type, so I’m trying the flexible route.
You see, we all know about the seduction of distractions. I love them. I might even define my life around them. So, to fit in a daily routine around them, you have the be the really disciplined type, or you have to be really imaginative. You need to put your imagination at work so that you can be flexible with both the time and the place you practise in.
I realised that the more imaginative / creative I am, the higher the chances of me practising daily. For example, I was away for the weekend at my parents, and there was a wedding to attend as well. It was quite a hectic weekend, and the only chance I got to practice, was the time before I went to shower. So I did some basics, and pick bits of the form that I can do within the confines of the room.
In fact, this pre-shower time has been the favourite time for me to practise. If I don’t practise by then, it most likely means I don’t practise at all for the day, unless I manage to wake up in the morning to do it before the day starts.
So even when i’m really tired or if I’m home late, I’ll still try to fit in the practice. Sometimes, when I’m really tired, the Tai Ji i do will be very sloppy. Sloppy can feel good as well, even better at times because I will be more relaxed somehow. Like doing some sort of drunken Tai Chi.
How has your practice been like?
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4 Comments
Since I threw out the Lenten Challenge, it’s been quite tough. As you’ve said, it’s tough; and you have to be both committed and creative. If I just can’t seem to get anything else done, I’ll practice zhan zhuang for a while. I’ll just go to bed a little later. It’s the least I can do.
For me, practice has been harder lately and I blame it on losing that hour for daylight savings time
Just overall more tired lately and I usually practice before bed, but not enough energy.
But now, I find other things to do and practice. Since I just attended the Chen Zhonghua workshop, I’ve been learned things that I can practice throughout the day. Example, you can practice sinking your elbow into your dantien while sitting at any chair
I’ll write more about this later on my blog 
I totally agree. For me it’s all about the Mind. Yet isn’t a quintessential part of the internal arts a way of training the Yi? The mind is generally disturbed easily and will react against force… A teacher of mine recently gave advice in Zhan Zhuang that gently guiding the mind back to focus is much better than forcing it. Is this not the same for everyday practice?
I was also told once long ago that it helps to “ritualise the practice in someway”… For me this simply means believing that my world will fall apart if I fail to practice everyday. Even a little before bed will do, as Rick suggested.
Seems like before bed time is a favourite time! My goal is to do at least 20 minutes a day, so by 20 minutes, usually I would have completed one set of Chen Lao Jia Yi Lu, and I would have sweat bucket loads. Can’t go to bed like that…
@wujimon: can’t wait to hear more about your elbow to dantien technique. definitely worth it since i’m office bound most of the time.
@xenmonkey: almost all the time, the initial step to do it feels very forced, but after going into the form, everything starts to fall in place and was wondering why I didn’t do this earlier.