Many of us have reasons for not maintaining a regular spiritual practice; it’s not easy for some of us to build it into our lives.  I assume that many of you agree, however, that some kind of regular spiritual practice—meditation, prayer, journaling, walking, chanting, tai chi, yoga—is a beneficial activity to include in your life.  So why don’t we do it?  Since many of us have periods where we fall away from practice, too (and perhaps you’re in that place right now), how do we get re-inspired?  First I’ll talk about our excuses for not practicing and what they might say about us.  Then I’ll talk about how to let these excuses go—a simple but much harder process.

Our Excuses

            Although there are many reasons why people don’t practice regularly, I’d like to go over the ones people tell me about the most—

No Time

            Although almost everyone mentions “time” as a problem, I don’t think that time is the real issue. It’s about prioritizing.  You are probably doing lots of things in your life that are not really that important, but you justify them, and you keep doing them.  Maybe you think others expect you to do them; maybe they’re a favorite indulgence; maybe you do them out of habit; maybe you do them because you enjoy them.  Whatever your reasons, you’re not willing to let them go for a greater purpose, such as nurturing a deeply spiritual life, however you define it.  Ask yourself:  how many things do you do that you really don’t have to do?  If you were willing to look at the activities that demand your time, you might find a lot of them aren’t really that important in the big picture.

Can’t Remember to Do It

            If we move spiritual practice up as a priority, then people tell me they can’t remember to do it.  I suggest lots of ways to help people remember to do it, like putting a note in obvious places and especially building it into your daily routine.  But people forget to write the note!  It’s funny how we forget that our days are filled with routines, such as brushing our teeth, having morning coffee, reading the paper, eating breakfast, and similar kinds of rituals throughout the day.  We are very wedded to our routines and are reluctant to disrupt them; they give us a feeling of control, familiarity and security.  Rather than assume you can’t remember to do your practice, ask yourself if you’re simply reluctant to alter the routine elements that represent the moments of sanity in your life, whether in the morning, during the day, or at night. I had one person tell me that her day is so crazy that she wouldn’t be able to find even a few minutes to meditate until she went to bed at night.  So I recommended that she sit up in bed for ten minutes and meditate before she went to sleep.

Not Getting Results

            Let’s assume that you make the time and build a practice into your daily routine.  But you want results!  And high level results while you’re at it:  calmness, serenity, equanimity, compassion for others.  And you’d like to feel that way all the time.  Many of you might say that you know that this is not realistic, that it takes time to develop a practice and to experience changes.  But there’s another part of you that wants those results—NOW!  Rather than push away that desire, it’s helpful to acknowledge it and let it go.  And then practice.  Recently a woman called me who was interested in learning about meditation.  She had tried it, but usually gave up after a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately she’d been reading books written by people who had had extraordinary experiences—and this woman had not.  We all have hopes for how spiritual practice can change us.  Rather than discount those desires, we are better off just noticing them, experiencing our desires, releasing them, and practicing anyway.

It Doesn’t Work for Me

            Although sometimes a particular practice is not well-suited to us, more often than not we reject a practice because we want it to be fun, fast, entertaining, and easy.  Several months ago I began learning an energy movement program called Tai Chi Chih, or Joy Thru Movement.  I have two friends who teach it and highly recommended it to me.  I tried it for a while and learned half the movements, and discovered myself making all the usual excuses for not doing it on my own.  Later on, however, I had a chance to learn all of the movements, and I began to really enjoy it and decided that adding a movement practice would be a nice balance to my meditation practice.  I also realized that at my sleepy time of day, around 3:00pm, I was usually finished with most of my daily projects, and that it was a natural time for me to practice.  And suddenly I found that I loved doing it.  What had shifted for me?  I think it was a combination of things:  learning the full practice, making a place for it in my day, and becoming comfortable enough with the sequence of movements that I could simply enjoy the flow of it.  I’ve been practicing it regularly, along with my sitting practice, ever since.  So the next time you try a practice, don’t expect to master it right away; just ask yourself if you’ve given yourself enough time to develop a certain level of ease with it—even if it’s not easy!

Letting go of excuses

            It’s so simple and so hard to develop a spiritual practice.  Just remember, every time you resist doing it, with all the usual excuses, notice those very excuses, acknowledge them, let them go—and practice.  Just practice.