Practice

What we practice we become

One of the things I try to do in the clinic is encourage and help my clients to begin a personal practice. This means dedicating regular, structured time every day in which which the basic building blocks of healing are practiced.

By this I mean practicing things like how to hold and focus attention, developing the capacity for self awareness and mindfulness, positive qualities like empathy compassion and gratitude. But also capacities like agency and the willingness to tolerate discomfort and uncertainty.

Exploring the landscape

A practice, in this sense, is about beginning to explore the landscape of your body and your mind in a way that challenges and strengthens those attributes and grows your ability to use them well. It’s a bit like map making – the better you understand the territory and what you can do in it, the easier it becomes to navigate and the safer you feel.

The slightly obvious and yet mind blowing thing is that whatever we choose to practice, we always get better at it – what an amazing capacity that is – we can literally choose something, practice it and improve! The body-mind is so intelligent and adaptive that it will immediately start to change itself as you start something new.

Body practices often focus on movement and sensation as a beginning point. We can practice any attribute we like – balance, flexibility, control, strength – the list of potential explorations we can make, if we wish, is never ending. It makes no difference where you are in terms of physical fitness or age – when you begin your practice, you’re on the road to resilience.

How to start

Many established practices, like Yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong for example are explicitly concerned with addressing awareness and balance of the mind and body. Engaging in one of these long established practices is a great way to begin, because there is an established framework and community to engage with. It’s probably good to try out different teachers and practices to see which might float your boat.

It’s sometimes hard to begin a practice on your own, especially if the whole thing is a new idea for you it’s much easier when you have a like minded community to support and encourage the change.

So do get in touch with the clinic if you would like some advice and support about how to start or you would like to find out more about the Finding Health workshops which are explicitly designed to help you begin your practice.