Routines

Well here I am, sitting at the cafe after a couple rounds in the park. I suppose I’ll have to add blogging to my routine. After having lived a fairly chaotic life, I decided some time back to try and settle down. Like most things it remains easier said than done. There always seems to be some hitch in the git-a-long. I have though created some semblance of a daily schedule. By forcing myself to be at the park by 8, I am generally up by 7 and rarely stay awake past midnight. One of the side effects of doing taiji, at least for me, is a heightened sense of self. My internal rhythms have become increasingly more apparent to me. My poor diet, irregular sleep cycle and even the unhealthiness of some relationships in my life became impossible to ignore. “What has been seen cannot be unseen.” So I found myself forced to make drastic changes. I broke up with my girlfriend, started eating right and began my now daily routine.

Once on a schedule for a couple of months, I was shocked to notice how profound even the most subtle change to my routine was. I had attained a sort of equilibrium in my life and with that as a backdrop even the smallest causalities stood out. For example, I always thought I could drink as much as I wanted with out getting hung over. The reality of course, was that I was typically in such a bad state that I couldn’t tell the difference between ‘being hung over’ and ‘being normal’. That’s an extreme example and subsequint ones were increasingly more minute. At this point, in the ‘experiment’ if I don’t eat breakfast, forget to brush my teeth or Heaven Forbid, miss a day in the park, my whole day is out of wonk.

I have for a while, considered ching/jing to be that which answers the 3am booty call. The same thing that makes musicians play music, painters paint and dancers dance. It’s also what makes the difference between springing out of bed a second before the alarm goes off and laying there until 5 mins before work. Basically, it’s what lazy people don’t have. Making and keeping a daily routine will go a long way towards cultivating that energy. It may be hard at first and your body might whine a bit when you force it to get up the first couple of times, but in the long run you’ll be glad that you did.

2 responses to “Routines”

Shawn

August 27, 2009

Taiji has taught me that daily practice is paramount. There is no neutral. There’s losing ground, sustaining, and going forward. Sustaining is achieved by a minimum daily practice. Going forward is doing more than the minimum (in a mindful way). Losing ground is not doing the minimum. What is the minimum? I was once told 3 “raise hands.” I suspect it’s differs according to the individual. Having stated this, there are any number of days during the year where I lose ground.

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aedhcarrick

August 27, 2009

I also, ‘lose ground’ occasionally. I don’t think it’s all that terrible a thing, so long as I don’t let it become backsliding. Often in the beginning, I would skip doing the form because I didn’t feel as though I had the energy. Later, as I became more commited, I would force myself to do at least one round. Afterwards, I would feel good enough to do one more. In fact, it’s easy to get the impression that doing the form gives me energy.

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