Practice, Practice, Practice

From Menletter Septemer 2002

By Tim Baehr

You probably know the old joke: Kid to old man carrying a violin case: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Old man, "Practice, son, practice."

Practice is an essential part of learning anything and maintaining skills at it: the violin, making chip shots, speaking a foreign language, kicking field goals, tying flies. It can have other, sometimes deeper, implications, too: practicing medicine, practicing a spiritual discipline.

I think one of the ways we can be happy is to have a set of practices that we follow faithfully. Here are some ideas.

Physical

There's a well-known overweight and obesity epidemic going on in this country, and lack of exercise is cited, along with junk food (and super-sizing of it). It's damned easy to come home after a stressful day, kick back, and veg out. But it's killing us. Here's the most general advice: find something you like to do and do it every day. Walk around the block. Jump rope. Run. Anything. Build from there. The benefits are more than physical: people who exercise are generally happier.

Mental

Usually we associate "use it or lose it" with physical abilities. Guess what - your brain needs exercise, too. If your job is stimulating and keeping your mind sharp, fine. If you're not learning anything new, it may be time to add some "recreational thinking." What seems to keep the brain lithe is the novel and different. Read a book that's not in your field. Take foreign language courses (for the hell of it or because you want to retire to, say, Italy or Spain someday). Do the daily crossword puzzle. You may find that you not only stay sharp mentally, but that you feel younger. That old mind/body thing.

Spiritual

It's easy to see and track (and for scientists, to measure) the benefits of regular physical and mental exercise. What about he spiritual? Even if you're a regular church-goer, you may be going mostly because of the social aspects, for the sense of community, or because of the kids. What does a spiritual practice involve? In almost every tradition, it involves (1) quiet and solitude; (2) a release from the internal "noise" of constantly thinking; (3) a surrender of the idea of "self" to something bigger - a deity, a higher or truer self, and so on. This is not just blissing out. It's a kind of "grand pause" in which you get in touch with something not bound by time and space.

The Baehr 20-Minute Rule

It's really hard to get started and then keep up any practice. I have no problem with the daily crossword puzzle; it's part of my breakfast ritual. But sometimes I have to force myself to start my daily walk, and sometimes my daily meditation. Often, the early part of my daily walk feels horrible - I'm stiff and sore, or just logy. But things smooth out after 20 minutes. The walking gets almost effortless. Same thing with meditation: totally distracted for 20 minutes, and then a peacful calm settles in. If only I could dispense with the first 20 minutes and just go with the last five! But one leads to the other.

What if you have only ten minutes to spare? That's fine. Even if you're logy - physically, mentally, or spiritually - you can put up with some discomfort for ten minutes.

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

Three 20-minute (or more) sessions of practice can eat up a lot of your day. How about staggering things a bit? Try to do two a day. Close your eyes (after you read this sentence) and imagine how you could fit 40 minutes into your day. If your day is so harried you don't have 40 minutes, you might want to have a broader look at how your life is going! But you can also try some micro-practices: Isometric exercise while waiting for the light to change. Adding license plate numbers or making up words from their letters when you're stuck in traffic. Closing your eyes and breathing deeply for a few seconds when you first get to work or when you're washing dishes.

Synergy

The main buzz word of the 70s has lost a bit of its cachet, but there is, I think, a potent enhancing effect of engaging in more than one practice. A standard one is "walking meditation," in which you pay quiet attention to your breathing and body movements as you walk.

Results

We're in a results-oriented culture: everything has to have some kind of measurable outcome. I don't recommend that you keep score of how good or faithful you are with your practices, but it's a good idea to be attuned to changes. Do you feel calmer? Are you eating or sleeping better? Is there more of a bounce in your step? Are you less crabby and gloomy? Do you smile more - and do people smile at you more?