A practice does not have to be a herculean effort, it just needs to be able to be accomplish-able without grinding you down. The danger is that most of us start out with a goal that is too big -- for example, let's say you have a goal to enter and to finish the Ironman Triathalon in Hawaii. Now if you haven't been training by swimming, biking and running the kind of distances required by this lofty physical event, you'd better not enter it. Maybe you have just set your sights too high. Instead, how about a local event that offers lesser distances than the 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles biking and 26.2 miles of running? Locally, lesser distances are usually offered. But even if you choose to enter locally, you've got to train before you enter the game!
Now let's compare this with our spirituality (or in my tradition, my Christian "practice"). Most of us begin the our practice without thinking about training and preparation. We set a goal too high. Then we give up feeling like a failure. So, how does one properly do spiritual training -- to begin a "practice"?
For me, my spiritual training (just like my physical training) is regular, planned, and incremental. I know that if I am going to either grow or be sustained in my faith, I need to train on those things that will help me on my spiritual journey without burning me out. Just like you can over-train physically, you can over-practice spiritually.
In my case, I have four basic spiritual "practices:" 1) daily reading of scripture, 2) prayer for my friends and family, 3) thanksgiving to God for what I have, and 4) time sitting alone in silence in order to listen for God. (I also must admit that I have scratch paper and a pen nearby! -- for both my thoughts and God's!).
This practice generally takes 20-30 minutes and then I often supplement this by listening to my ipod when I take my morning one-hour walk (it contains a mixture of contemporary praise music and Gregorian chant).
This is what I feel maintains my spirituality, my connection with God -- just like that one-hour of physical exercise six days a week maintains my physical health and aerobic capacity to do other things in my life that I like to do (such as cycling, skiing, snowshoeing and kayaking).
So that's it in a nutshell; that's my practice. And now I encourage you to develop your own spiritual practice. Start out slow (remember, you don't get in condition to run a marathon by starting out running big distances) -- start slow, build up!
BLESSINGS!
