02.16.08
PRACTICE
Here we are – in the quiet of mid January. The holidays are over, New Year’s resolutions made…or not, the depth of winter unfolding before us. What now in this place that feels almost like the void? Well, I am still thinking about resolutions and how to gently move them into practice. Please note the word gently. As I was reading the 43 (yes, 43) newsletters that arrived in my in box along with 2008, I was surprised to find so many claiming that resolutions were a waste of time. Well, you have already read my opinion on that (http://www.intention.com/blog/?page_id=23
). So I dug a little deeper. The Latin root word of resolve means to loosen, or release. Quite a different experience from the tension we might feel about the commitments we made to ourselves at the turn of the year. In the spirit of loosening up I am looking at this quiet time as an opportunity to ‘practice’ the new behaviors and thought patterns I want to create in 2008. Back to the dictionary to learn about practice. This is where ‘gently’ comes into play: ‘the repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency’. That’s what I want, and experience tells me what we all want is to learn or improve. It is human nature to stretch ourselves, and when we do we feel more alive, more awake and generally happier. Sometimes we name it differently but the spirit is the same. If we are exercising we call it a routine, if we are learning the piano we call it practice, if we are changing a thought pattern we call it awareness, but it all amounts to knowing that we will engage ourselves on a regular basis to shift into a new way of being. Read more http://www.intention.com/blog/?page_id=20 robert downey jr sherlock holmes 