Day 78- What are you practicing?

 

prac·tice  [prak-tis]

1. repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency: Practice makes perfect.

2. the action or process of performing or doing something: to put a scheme into practice; the shameful practices of a blackmailer.

 

In my line of work, I help people restore natural human movement to their lives, giving them simple, easy exercises and movement patterns to correct their poor everyday movement habits and ease them out of chronic pain. 

 

It's a great job. 

 

Sometimes. 

 

But often, simple solutions are met with serious resistance. 

 

I get people coming to me who are in pain, I mean, serious pain. I assess what they're doing wrong, give them 5-30 minutes of daily corrective, restorative exercises and stretches to do--many of these require little space, no equipment and little effort--and send them out the door. 

 

When I see them three weeks later, I ask about their progress. 

 

"Oh, I liked how it felt at first, and I was really good about it, but I didn't really have time to practice it."

 

 

Okay. 

 

You didn't have time to practice feeling better. 

 

To practice living healthier. 

 

Ruminate on this:

 

You are always practicing something. 

 

Really think about that. 

 

You are always practicing something. If you're not practicing walking, then you're practicing not walking, but rather, you're practicing sitting on your rear end.  If you're not practicing flossing, then you're practicing not flossing. Instead, you're practicing gum disease.If you don't have time to practice feeling better, that means you're actively practicing feeling overworked, stressed, unhappy, uncomfortable, out-of-whack, in pain.

Does that seem harsh? 

 

I'm telling you the truth. If you want to fix, change, do something, be good at something, then you must practice it. Otherwise, you're practicing NOT DOING IT. Is that really something you want to be good at? 

In our household, we never say, "Practice makes perfect." That's stupid. Who wants perfection? 

Instead, we say, "Practice makes you better."

Because it does. If you're not practicing getting closer to your goals, then what are you practicing?

Life is now. 

Dani

Special thanks to Katy Bowman, who said the words, "You're always practicing something." and changed the way I present things to myself and my clients.