You’re only as good as your last practice

Many years ago, I worked in Oil & Gas. We worked on quarterly sales projections and targets.There was a saying:

You’re only as good as your last quarter.

What that meant was that even if just last year you had the most spectacularly lucrative quarter in the history of the company (you remember that feeling of being carried through the office halls on the shoulders of your cheering coworkers), if in the past 3 quarters you have yielded little, you aren’t of much benefit.

In the years since my first spinal injury, I had many spectacular quarters.

Daily alternate nostril breathing over the course of an entire year, brought clarity and focus.

Daily yoga (asana practice) provided measurable health and mobility benefits.

I had huge epiphanies during 40-day kriya practices, and leaps in creativity from daily qigong.

Then I’d get busy with my creative projects and life would begin to feel odd and itchy and I’d feel my focus fleeting, my body aching and my sarcasm blossoming. And after I’d rolled around lost in that concoction for awhile I’d remember that I’d fallen out of my practices.

And I’d always think to myself,

Haven’t I done enough, earned enough merit… shouldn’t the benefits of years of practice carry forward?

When I return to practice, of one form or another, focus and ease, clarity, creativity and contentment once again return.

And I realize,

You’re only as good as your last practice  😉

“Some people ask me, “You are a Master, why do you do Sadhana?” I say, “To remain a Master!”” ~ Yogi Bhajan 

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. ~ Zen quote