Why "Consistency" Doesn't Work For Everyone
Let me start by saying: “Consistent” practice is not the same as DEVOTED practice.
Devoted practice works, I think, because it drops judgement + embraces flow.
Consistent practice fails, because it easily becomes about “checking the box,” like brushing your teeth (v existing in the entirety of experience).
Let me start by saying: “Consistent” practice is not the same as DEVOTED practice.
Devoted practice works, I think, because it drops judgement + embraces flow.
Consistent practice fails, because it easily becomes about “checking the box,” like brushing your teeth (v existing in the entirety of experience).
I used to believe the internet lie that consistency is key to success, and happiness, and ease:
“Successful people wake up at the same time every day. Happy people move through the same morning routine every day. They eat the same breakfast, at the same time, every day.”
Maybe that’s true - for some of us. But it’s not my experience (and maybe it’s not yours either).
My belief is that: we’re not designed to do the same thing, at the same time, every day.
Women especially (but men, too!) are designed to move through cycles:
We cycle through hormones every month, we cycle through pregnancy-birth-postpartum over 2+ years for each of our babes (if we have them), we cycle through drastically different ages + stages in our hopefully long lifetimes.
Which means, “consistent” practice doesn’t serve us in the way it’s advertised.
Devoted practice might, though.
My point is, if you are DEVOTED to yourself more than the practice, your practice can change - your practice can grow as you do!
Because you can trust yourself.
You can try and try again, believing that your sole purpose in this world is just that: to show the heck up, to DEVOTE yourself to yourself.
Thoughts on this? Share a comment below! Would love to hear your experience with these words, too.
xx, alycia buenger
Mind Wandering Meditation: Quick + Easy Practice (for beginners, too!)
There are lots of ways to meditate, lots of types of meditation, and lots of different meditation teachers.
There’s no ‘one size fits all.’
And it’s less about HOW you practice, and for HOW LONG, than it is about WHERE it takes you.
Even as I say the word meditation, I recognize my own beliefs about this word, my own stories around what that means…
“Meditation is a long practice. It requires hours and hours on a meditation pillow.”
“Meditation can only be ‘mastered’ after years of practice.”
“Meditation is for people who have lots of free time (i.e. not me, not mothers with small kiddos).”
But here’s what I know: There are lots of ways to meditate, lots of types of meditation, and lots of different meditation teachers.
There’s no ‘one size fits all.’
And it’s less about HOW you practice, and for HOW LONG, than it is about WHERE it takes you.
The meditation in the video above is a mind-wandering meditation practice that I love, because it’s accessible: it doesn’t require me to listen to hours of guided audio or sit a certain way, breath a certain way…
But it’s powerful.
Maybe this practice seems vague - but that’s what I like about it!
When I take a mind-wandering approach to my meditation (whether every day or just when I need it), it literally changes the course of my day.
xx, alycia buenger