The next section of Living Your Yoga is on Discipline or as Judith puts it “practice in action”.  She starts by suggesting in order to begin practicing discipline to keep it simple and achievable.  The disciplined practice should focus on being mindful during the practice.   She discusses making a list of things you always want to do but never seem to have time doing them, such as meditation, exercise, writing, taking a walk, reading a good book.  She advises using a timer and setting for only 15 minutes and to do this every day.  She continues to explore that before each designated activity take a moment to declare the intention of what you are trying to do and afterwards to express gratitude for having the time to do it.  She suggests not going over 15 minutes and doing this for every day until maybe you decide to replace it with another activity.

Other Discipline practices she suggests include:

• Do one thing at a time.
• Commit yourself to doing what is possible.  Make a list of what you have to do tomorrow and eliminate activities that are unnecessary, reschedule those that can be and should be postponed.
• Take a nap every Sunday.
• Slow down in what ever everyday activity you choose such as driving, speaking or walking to you care.  Begin each activity with one gentle inhalation and follow it with a calm exhalation.
• Take a lunch break every day.
• For the next 3 days write down what you do in half-hour increments.  This exercise will help you discover your free time.  Now take a break instead of adding another activity and do something restorative like yoga or painting/artwork.