Reflecting on Practice

Awakening can be very mysterious, ineffable, and nebulous. Unlike other aspects of life, where your goals are more concrete, one part of the process of going on an awakening journey is letting go of fixed ideas and allowing yourself to be open to uncertainty, unexpected things, and ineffable qualities.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t have any sense of purpose or progress, and having a method for reflecting on practice will help keep your practice focused and meaningful.

There are a number of ways you could measure or reflect on a practice based on what it is and what is most important to you.

Lots of practices and traditions have systems for mapping progress within them, and this can be super helpful, as long as you can hold it lightly and recognise that this is not the be-all and end-all of life. Even when a practice does have a way of recognising progress, it can be useful to pop your head out of the rabbit hole to reflect on your practice from a wider viewpoint. To think about the benefits from outside the frame that you have been given.

And some practices and traditions have no methods for recognising progress or reflecting on the benefits of it; this can be a little disorienting and make you lose track of what’s important. Or mean that you get caught up in hierarchy and status as the marker of your progress.

The exercise below is an example of a way to reflect on your practice. If you can make some time and space to reflect on a practice, it will help you see what works for you, appreciate the positive changes you are experiencing, cut away the unhelpful stuff, and focus on the most meaningful things.

It’s important to answer honestly. If something isn’t working for you, it’s better to be aware of this so that you can change it.

I have split the reflections up into embodiment, heartfulness, mindfulness, and soulfulness.

Importantly, a practice or approach definitely doesn’t need to meet all these bullet points; it could be that just meeting one or two really deeply feels the most meaningful way to dedicate your practice time.

And as always it’s worth mentioning that sometimes practice makes things feel worse before it makes them feel better because it surfaces all the challenging things that you have been dissociating from or suppressing.

The purpose of doing this exercise isn’t for it to be a final arbiter of your practice, but engaging with the reflection gives you a way to access a wider and more objective perspective on what you’re doing and how it’s going.

It may also inspire some more unique reflections that are specific to you and your practice goals, which you could write down or keep in mind to reflect on.