The choices I make today–whether it be what I do, or what I don’t do, the thoughts I think, or the ways I respond–are going to either reinforce my existing habits of body and mind, or they will be working to build new ones.
In a sense, we are always practicing something–whether through action or inaction–and whatever we practice is going to become easier in time. That’s why it’s often so hard to start new habits. Not because the habit in itself is necessarily difficult, but because we’ve been practicing not doing it for months, or years, or even decades. Thus, it doesn’t feel natural, and it takes work to get started and to keep going.
Today, everything we do is going to reinforce something, one way or another. The question is, What will it be? Because whatever I choose to practice today (whether through doing or not doing) will begin to get easier as it becomes a habit.
When it comes to practice, the question is not, If?, but, What? We’re always practicing something; but are we practicing those things that we truly want to become easier to do in the future?