I have been thinking about what it means to have a home practice. What makes my practice a practice, and not a routine?
I think it comes down to how much I am paying attention to what I am doing. Routines just seem to happen almost on their own. I am scarcely conscious of how I brush my teeth, or drink that glass of warm lemon water first thing in the morning. Sometimes I can’t remember whether or not I have already done these things. But when I practice, be it yoga, meditation, or prayer, this is the time I endeavor to bring my full attention into the present activity, or non-activity, as the case may be. My goal might ultimately be to bring this attention into everything I do, all the time. But I find it helpful to have a more specific place to start. In my daily practice, I build a pathway in myself of how to get present, how to “be here.” I can, for instance, send my awareness into my body and out into the space immediately around my body. I immediately feel more “here.” Having this pathway, perhaps, is its own kind of habit, but it is a habit which allows me to connect at will to any one of my” nows,” any time I remember that this is where I want to be.
ShaktiCPearce 