What is your daily routine for mental and physical health? Our breath, a consistent pulse that echoes in everything within our rhythm in this space. This breath is reflected by Mother Earth in the tides, the seasons, wind within the trees and the beating of the heart of every animal.
We are born into the rhythm of our parents’ life; we live within it without even realising. The breath itself is our most natural practice, our daily routine and cycle of daily life, work, rest and play. We don’t think about most rhythms, but they simply become who we are and define our belief system.
Like the breath, the most meaningful rituals are simple and absorbed effortlessly into our energetic system. They are quiet, consistent and deeply personal. They’re not to impress, but to sustain, to grow and to bring us back to ourselves.
Where Does Growth Begin?
Most of the time we are not consciously aware of our breath, but occasionally we find ourselves taking a deep breath or letting out a sigh. We become aware of a space or pause we hadn’t previously noticed, so too do we reach moments in life where we feel the desire to expand. To go deeper. To explore the parts of ourselves that lie just beneath the surface of our many daily practices.
Where does the improvement come, where do we find that space to breathe a little deeper into ourselves? For me it’s found in becoming more aligned with our natural curiosity and what we find interesting, what the energetic world around us is trying to point out to us. We take a deep breath and remember we have a far bigger capacity than we thought.
When we begin to listen and become aware of what we are drawn to, we begin to see the breadcrumbs of deeper practices. The external world mirrors the internal; we see before us manifested what’s happening within. That passing interest, a new movement or a walk in nature is your body, emotional self and spirit whispering to your conscious mind to take a closer look.
Daily practice doesn’t need to be rigid or fixed. In fact, the most aligned practices shift and evolve as we do. What nourishes you now may not serve you in six months. The real discipline is not in the practice itself, but in listening, regularly checking in with where your energy wants to go.
Daily practices, meditations and routines change over time as they become integrated within our system. Just like learning new skills, at first it takes time to master, then we can do it with efficiency, elegance and grace.
It reaches a point where we know how to do it; we’ve integrated everything we need. Sometimes it’s about creating space, looking at our daily practices and viewing them as the observer of the experience of ourselves. It offers an overview, where to step into a new insight, we can find out something about our true nature, our potential or something that has become outdated or no longer resonates.
I certainly know that there are things I can change, do better and improve, but the way I approach these areas of my life has changed. Within daily practice I would offer the thought that we can approach it in two distinct areas.
Two Questions to Anchor You
I often find that creating space to sit in stillness reveals a lot. From this space and yourself, two simple questions can help to shape your daily rhythms:
What can I stop doing that is taking up my time in a non-beneficial way and no longer resonates within my system?Our lives are filled with daily practices (habits, some inherited, some self-constructed). Bringing this thought into your awareness and letting go of just one can create space for something far more aligned to step in.
What makes sense today, and where is my curiosity leading me?This question roots you in the presence of now and invites your intuition to be heard. It brings online and raises awareness to every aspect of self within the present moment.
We often think of personal development as a staircase, slogging away and moving upwards. But perhaps it’s more like a scribble on a piece of paper, freehand circles overlapping in multiple directions. Like your pencil is taking a line for a walk. We are circling back to familiar places, only each time with more awareness of the experience of ourselves. Our practices are never perfect or have a known destination. They only ever need to be present.
A Way of Being
Don’t consider your daily practices as tasks on a checklist. They are not skills to master or jobs to complete. You are creating relationships with other parts of yourself and listening to how they interact with your environment and the people around you. This realisation is as simple and as powerful as the practice of your breath.
You already know how to do this and are born with this wisdom. What’s required is not more striving towards a goal or reaching a higher level but just remembering. You are not going anywhere, and your job is simply to create the space for the other parts of you to come forward and give you the feedback of the experience of yourself.
Daily routine for mental and physical health: Your Daily Practice
To live your life as a practice is to step into the presence of now and limitless possibility. It is to make peace with the rhythm of your own being and enjoy the experience. When you approach life this way, daily communion with your curiosity, your patterns and your purpose. You begin to live with more authenticity and greater presence.
For many people who have been working on personal development and creating a life full of best practice, it only becomes more apparent the patterns we are in and time spent doing things that no longer resonate. It is hard to break these routines, but it is possible, small changes and becoming present in the moments where the pattern comes into play.
Ask yourself, what’s coming up? Let your breath guide you, your curiosity lead you and have the conviction to put down the things that have served their purpose and integrated within your energetic system.
Your daily practice is not a destination but a relationship, an ongoing dialogue with your body, your environment, your curiosity and your truth. It’s simply about being present. When we embrace this way of living, we create space for self-discovery, healing and growth that is rooted in authenticity rather than expectation. Whatever your practices may be, allow them to evolve, to soften and to reflect who you are becoming.
Written by Richard Stuttle