Daily Reflection 2.21.21
Feb. 21st, 2021 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This relates to an issue we've discussed more than once in these posts:
Don't attack your Enemy where he is strongest!
For any given goal, we need to identify when the Enemy is strong and weak. The Enemy, remember, is any sort of resistance we will face-- very much including our own internal resistance to change, as we saw yesterday.
Astrology can be helpful for this, if it's something that you're interested in-- Mercury conjunct Venus in Gemini is an auspicious time to sign a lease or apply for job; Mercury retrograde in Pisces conjunct the Sun is a very bad time for the same things. This falls under "Heaven" in Sun Tzu's first list of constant factors. Similarly, Mars in Aries is good for beginning a workout regimen or starting military service; Mars in Taurus is not so good.
But not everyone is going to be an astrologer, and Astrology isn't sufficient on its own. Your workout routine, begun on a Tuesday while Mars is in Aries conjunct Jupiter and trine the ruler of your fifth house, can still fail, if you let your own internal resistance get the better of you. That's why I suggested a few tricks, yesterday, for overcoming this. Give yourself a basic minimum practice. Don't tell yourself your plans. Don't tell anyone else, if it comes to that.
Here is one more trick:
If you're trying to create a daily habit, there is a right time to do it, and a wrong time to do it. The wrong time is the enemy's strong point; the right time is their weak point. And what is the right time to do it:
When you'll do it.
Very often, especially with spiritual practices like meditation or prayer, or semispiritual practices like magic or yoga, we think that we have to practice either first thing in the morning or right before bed-- or both.
For many people, this is the absolute worst time possible.
Why?
Well, how do you feel in the mornings? Do you roll out of bed, bleary-eyed, and make a beeline for the coffeemaker, and then try to get enough caffeine in you to last you through the drive to work? If so, how will you feel about waking up a half hour earlier? Do you shudder just imagining it? If so, that's probably not a great time to learn meditation.
The evening is often just as bad, especially if you have kids. By the time dinner is made and cleaned up again, all the little people are convinced that, yes, they really do need to bathe and go to sleep again today and no, not at midnight, meditation is often the last thing you want to do. I know that, for me, that hour at the end of the day after the last of the little ones falls asleep but before I drop off is one of the few times I get alone with my partner during the weekday. I don't want to go off in another room and meditate!
If you identify with any of this, forget morning and night. Try your lunch break at work instead. Or find somewhere to sit for a half hour at the end of the day, before you drive home. Or meditate after dinner-- Yes, you're allowed, whatever the book said.
At one time-- long ago-- I had a 9-5 office job, and I was training to be a massage therapist in the evenings from 5-10. That left very little time to myself! At work I had the standard 15 minute breaks twice a day, and I could get away with an hour lunch. During my breaks I'd often run to the park around the corner to do 10 minutes of qigong, and 3 days a week, at lunch time, I'd ride my bike to the dojo for an hour of karate. I could have tried to do these things in the morning, but, well, I just wouldn't have. The best time to do it is when you'll do it.
Now I ought to mention that these days, I do my magical practice first thing in the morning, around 6am. This routine works very well for me, but there's a reason for that, and it's not because I suddenly became a morning person. Far from it! My wife has to be at work very early, and I like waking up with her and helping her get out the door. Everyday the alarm goes off at 5, and I drag myself to the kitchen and make coffee, her breakfast and lunch for the day, and then I start the car if it's cold outside. Wife leaves at 6, and then I have an hour to myself before the kids get up.
Once the kids get up, all bets are off. Since Covid, I've been a full-time househusband, and it's more work than I ever guessed it might be. From 7:00 onward I'm going pretty much continuously, chasing baby around the house, helping my older kid with his schoolwork, making food, cleaning up the kitchen, making more food, cleaning up again, doing laundry, making dinner, cleaning up the kitchen for a third time. If I tried to fit a magical practice or anything else into that time, it just wouldn't work. But during that hour from 6 to 7-- sometimes, when the gods smile on me, 7:30, or, rarely, 8:00-- I can do whatever I want. So that's when I practice magic, meditate, and so on.
So keep that in mind. The Enemy Within has a weak point, and it's whenever you will actually have time to do whatever it is you want to do-- even if it's not the time the book said to do it. If you find yourself saying, "Well, I can't meditate now, it's 1:30 in the afternoon, and I heard you have to do it first thing in the morning, I guess I'll look at Facebook instead" just tell yourself to shut up.
Makes sense :)
Date: 2021-02-22 03:58 pm (UTC)A lot books really do try to prescribe a specific time and give you all these reasons why it's the best time, and it gives you the impression that you're somehow cheating if you pick a time that you prefer. Not sure why, there's often more "credit" given for overcoming all the possible hardships (climb the steepest slope, so-to-speak) than for trying to make it easier for yourself to just do it.
Re: Makes sense :)
Date: 2021-02-22 05:19 pm (UTC)I think the issue is that, if you insist on a particular time for your practice, you're trying to cultivate two habits at the same time. Since the will gains strength from unity, trying to do two things at once (wake up a half hour early every day AND meditate every day) is a great way to sabotage yourself.