“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.”
Archilocus
The relevance of practice is absolutely paramount.
Period.
And that holds true across all levels:
- Physical
- Sensual
- Mental
- Emotional
- Aspirational
- Spiritual
Physical refers to Challenging and Easing our Body on a regular basis. It encompasses any type of workout, martial arts or breath practice as well as practices to relax and to ease.
Because regardless of our advancement in working with our body – we will create tension.
That makes it essential to also develop dedicated practices to release those.
Sensual refers to our ability to become more and more subtle with what we can perceive.
There is a beautiful Zen story about a master and his disciple for exactly that. If you’re curious, have a look here.
Essentially the more subtle we become with what we can hear, smell, see and feel, the more we expand our reality.
Our world – literally – grows with our sensitivity to the subtle.
Mental refers to our ability to not be lead by our mind but by leading it.
It’s staying focused with what we want to focus on.
It’s focusing on what actually nourishes and supports us.
It’s being aware of our partner and children – not our phones.
Emotional refers to our ability to be with the waves of emotions which arise moment by moment.
Beings with a feminine essence (not necessarily women) are significantly stronger in that realm than beings with a masculine essence.
Simply because they experience these waves sooo much stronger – that they simply need to learn in life to become better at surfing them.
But the ability to surf them is crucial for all of us.
Because else we will be tossed around – again not leading our life but being lead.
Aspirational refers to our abiltiy to have intentional goals and to actively pursue them.
To work towards whomever it is we want to become.
To work towards whatever it is we want to offer the world.
To work towards wherever it is we want to be.
Spiritual refers (in this case) to dedication beyond ourselves.
To understand there is more to life and to the universe than little me.
With my desires.
With my wishes.
With my needs.
They are not irrelevant – but they are also not the end point.
Bringing all levels together is extremely challenigng.
But the greatest challenge is consistency. Is to keep up with the practice.
And I had supreme luck with that:
If there is one thing I am deeply grateful for it’s that my father put me into Karate when I was six years old.
It was oldschool Kyokushinkai-Karate.
It was repeating the same punches, kicks and katas ad infinitum.
Until perfection.
It was the horror as a child.
I tried my utmost to get away, to stay at home or to instead meet with friends.
But I still went. Again and again.
For more than seven years.
And what it taught me, apart from my ability to do push-ups on my knuckles on literally every surface:
It’s the ability to persevere in practice.
To practice the same moves for tens of thousands of times.
To not get bored by the same excercise.
And to do it every damn day.
Which is the most essential to sustainably change your life.
Because you become what you do consistently.
The difference between doing something consistently and repeatedly is awareness and intention.
To just type thousands piano keys for thousands of hours is not going to make you a great pianist.
Doing so with a clear intention while being deeply present throughout the practice will.
That’s why consistent practice is key:
Because you become what you do consistently.
So choose intentionally what you want to do consistently –
so that you become who you actually want to be.
Curious about how? Reach out here.
