Just do it. The best practice is the one you do. It’s easy to do and easy not to do. Schedule your practice time. Make it a priority. The hard part is in the showing up. The next hard part is in the staying. Practice first thing in the morning.

Brilliant words of advice.

I’m a fan of practice. I have a lot of them. The things I do that I learn from are the things I call practices. Practices are the things I do no matter what — some of them serve my wellbeing, (walking and qigong) and some don’t (watching TV and eating cookies.) I do them anyway.

Tai Chi was the first thing I consciously found I had to spend time working on if I wanted to learn it. Going to class twice a week wasn’t enough for me. I had to practice between classes to remember what had been taught. I found if I didn’t learn what had been taught, we didn’t move on. I am one of those pain in the ass students, that’s always saying, “What’s next?” So, I woke up and stepped into the 108 first thing every morning.

Now, granted Tai Chi has been the practice that I’ve learned the most from, yet over the years, I’ve added other practices to my day.

Meditation, writing, aerobic exercise, sit ups, stretching, watching TV, eating well, snacking, making beads, quilting, spinning, sorting, and letter writing — all of these practices come, go and stay in my day.

I’ve made check lists to be sure I get to them all. Nothing OCD to see here. BUT… the challenge is — the practices that serve me the best – I find I need to do first thing in the morning. I wake early to make them happen.

Still I can only do one of them first thing. This morning, I debated, should I walk or write? Sit in meditation or move slowly. Eat breakfast or deal with that later? I know that whatever I put off, may or may not get attention.

Practicing meditation just doesn’t feel right at 2p.m. and I rarely get around to writing in the afternoon. Besides that’s when the Walton’s are on TV, or Ken and I are doing something.

Right now, I am running out of time for a few of the practices I want to participate in. I need to get myself to the O right now, so I chose a fast walk this morning as the first thing… and here I am writing late in the afternoon, because I like this bloggy thing better when I post daily.

Putting first things first is hard when there are so many things to put first!