Defining Consistency
What is consistency?
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as:
Agreement or harmony of parts or features to one another or a whole
Cambridge dictionary defines it as:
The quality of always behaving or performing in a similar way, or of always happening in a similar way
What does consistency mean to you? What brings harmony and alignment to your life?
To develop consistency, we must first acknowledge the importance of discovering something we love. Find what grounds you and encourages you. Prioritize it on a daily basis, and set meaningful habits.
Nicole often asks her students, “what is nourishing now?”, as a guide for mindset, as ideas of discipline and consistency may be over coupled with feelings of shame or guilt while life happens.
Charym teachers Nicole and Brian thoughtfully explore these concepts:
“As a mother and leader of the cat herds within my life, the unexpected is the expected.
Now, I do set a timer for meditation with some consistency. I do my 30 minute weight exercises with some consistency. But what has really given me the steady presence that I sought from meditation is my embodied connection to our Earth.
When I look out my window, I am able to sense the deep wells of support seep into me. My mind is meditative. I am a free Earthling on this tender, beautiful, raw and brutal planet. Not looking away from what is terrible and not wishing to transcend into a more spiritual realm. Feeling inside each cell my relationship to the breath cycle and the real nourishment available to me.
That is my consistent practice. Seeing white pine. Seeing burdock. Seeing the tiny green leaves of my allies peeking out from the snow. Seeing their dried brown empty stalks and seed heads poking up reminds me that what is consistent is the total breakdown, rebirth and ride of the spiral of life through and to experiencing the wholeness, the one-ness, of us all.”
- Nicole Renee
“One of the most helpful things my would-be Zen teacher said to me when I was first interested in meditation was that the consistency of practice was more important than the length of my practice. In other words, if I could commit to practicing for 5 minutes every day, that would help me establish a regular practice more effectively than sitting for an hour once a week.
I took that to heart, started sitting daily with a timer, and committed to not getting up until it chimed, no matter how my practice was going. What I can see now is that a scatter-brained period of meditation is better than no period of meditation. I’d say the same is true of yoga asana practice.
Another related tip, and something I continue to work with, is to give up the idea of achievement. We all know that meditation and yoga and breathwork are good for our bodies, minds, and hearts. But focusing on what we will get from practice leaves no room for the times that it doesn’t go how we wanted it to. Expectation is a sure way to derail consistency.
An ancient Zen master asked his students, ‘The world is vast and wide, why do you put on your seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell?’ If I’d been one of his students, I might have replied, ‘Do I need a reason?’
I don’t know for sure, but I think he might have approved of my answering his question with a question.”
- Brian Pontolilo
At Charym Yoga Studio, we prioritize community along with health and wellbeing.
We welcome our students and teachers to a peaceful space, where together we discover the benefits of yoga, meditation, and sound healing.
Take that special hour of the day, when you come to class at Charym and develop a gentle relationship to consistency. Welcomed by our smiling faces and those hatha yoga flows gifted to us by long lineages of teachers.
Grant yourself the luxury of a consistent practice.
Allow us to support you.
We look forward to seeing you again in Center Studio.
Namaste.
