Discipline is practice. Practice is discipline. Meditation takes both practice and discipline.
I’m reading Judith Lasater’s Living Your Yoga for the third time. What’s different this time is I’ve decided to actually follow-through with the suggested practices at the end of each chapter. They are practices and discipline is required.
Coincidentally, the first chapter I’m working on (chapter 2) is titled “Discipline”. For the next month, I have decided to commit to practicing one thing 15 minutes per day.
Picking one thing is tough! Like many, I have a long list of “to do’s” I want to accomplish. And again like many, my excuse has been lack of time. What I’ve realized in just reading Chapter 2 is the truth is I lack commitment and clear intention as to why I want to do these “things”. Like most things, it’s easy to make the list (i.e. talk about it) and a lot harder to carry it out (i.e. do it). If your heart and intention aren’t in sync than more than likely you won’t fully accomplish the “to do”.
Discipline is less about what you get and more about what you give. So for 10-15 minutes a day, I’m giving myself the gift of meditation. It’s only been 5 days but so far so good. I’m also not beating myself up if it isn’t the full 10-15 minutes. The fact that I’m carving out the time, sitting in my space and doing my best to listen within is the practice.
Practice isn’t about being perfect. Just practicing is perfect and meditation is a perfect discipline.