Practice might mean many different things to different people. Usually when I say “practice”, I'm talking about yoga and meditation practice. But you can also look at so many other aspects of your life as a practice as well.

A practice could be how we talk to ourselves. That's something we can learn to update and evolve as we get clarity on what's helpful and what's not.

We can have a creative practice. I have a painting practice right now and oh boy, does that evolve! Some days it's really bad. And some days it's really exciting. So that could be considered a practice.

There's also the practice of our relationships and how we work with our own mental and emotional world as we relate with others around us.

So even if you don't consider yourself a meditator or a yoga practitioner, practice can take on many different forms.

What happens when suddenly you find your practice has become stale?Specifically from a meditation perspective, it's very easy for the practice to get stale because it can be so elusive.

Because meditation practice is subtle, it's very easy to find ourselves going off course or going down a path that doesn't really feel that aligned.

We might not feel confident about the way that our meditation is going or our yoga practice for that matter. What I have learned over 30 years of practice now is that we hit walls sometimes.

Sometimes those walls are self-imposed. They are asking us to redirect and learn something new about the practice, or maybe pick up a different aspect of the practice, or maybe there's something about it that's just not working. We may need to get some insight about how to circumnavigate the obstacle.

What's preventing the practice from keeping its freshness and being helpful?It's important to recognize that not every practice solves every problem.

Meditation practice is a fantastic way to train the mind to be present. This can give us clarity to navigate the choices in our life, but meditation will not help you learn to manage emotions necessarily.

So sometimes a different approach is needed to augment the practice that we have taken. We are changing and evolving beings. What was once useful to you as a practice at one stage of your life may reach a limit at another stage of life.

How do you manage your practice as it evolves?I know that my Ashtanga yoga practice has evolved dramatically since I first started. It's gone through the whole curve of learning it and then getting really into it and being obsessed and then letting it soften as I've gotten older.

It's important to recognize if practice is suddenly not feeling fresh, what's going on. There are a lot of different reasons why it might need an update. Some of these reasons are temporary and we might just need some new inspiration.

But some of them are more permanent. I seriously doubt that I will ever be doing, a daily third series practice anymore in this lifetime.

So how do you let your practice evolve?This is why I did a retreat recently with one of my Buddhist teachers, Tsognyi Rinpoche. After a week of being with one of my teachers, it's amazing how things shift and open.

Three simple words changed my whole practice and rebooted it.

When we are talking about meditation from a certain perspective there are really very simple instructions.

1. Recognize when the mind is still. You do that in meditation practice by focusing on the breath and allowing the breath to draw you into the present moment. This is a very simple way to bring your attention to ground you in the present moment. Some meditation practices will just stay there and this is fine. And you may just want to stay there. But from another perspective you can also notice the mind when it is not still.
2. Recognize when the mind is moving. Anytime you have a thought or memory or you are involved in some sensory perception, you see or hear something–that is a movement of the mind. It's also moving when we are remembering or we're caught up in a fantasy or projecting something that we would like to have happen in the future. All that gets lumped into the category of Mind in Movement. So anytime we are Still and quiet in the present moment. The mind is moving. Those are the two options. The mind is either still or it's moving. You may wonder how there could be a third option to this observation of mind in meditation…
3. Recognize the awareness that is aware of both stillness and movement. You notice when the mind is still, and you notice when the mind is moving and you notice the awareness that notices that process.

This is the simple key to meditation.Is to rest in this awareness to recognize that, oh my mind might be still, oh, there's a thought now the mind is moving and not to necessarily worry that the mind is moving and oh, I should get back to my meditation. Rather than forcing the mind into an unnatural stance (trying to make it still when it is moving, or vice versa) you just take a step back (so to speak) and just recognize the awareness that is aware of both the stillness and movement.

So from that perspective, it's all meditation.When you are simply aware of what's happening in any moment, as long as you maintain that connection with your awareness.

It’s really hard to be aware all the time–we lose it in distraction and daily ordeals– but you can make an aspiration and set an intention to be aware of whatever is going on. You make that your meditation practice.

So that was a big aha moment. That’s the reason that I take retreat every year – to reaffirm my meditation practice.

If you also feel called to reconnect the dots of your meditation practice, you can always do a retreat, but there are other ways.

Here are four ways that you can freshen up your meditation practice:1. Get some outside input. go to teachings, find a book that gives you a new angle or new insight into the practice that you're working on. Go see your teacher or talk to someone who you consider a mentor, someone who you feel has some wisdom or experience with the practice that you're doing. 2. Take a break. While it is recommended to practice daily in order to develop and deepen meditation practice, let's face it, sometimes we humans get tired. We may lose motivation. So sometimes just taking a break can be super helpful to refresh and gain some perspective. You can schedule this pause or, often a break simply happens because life gets in the way. You don’t want to make a regular habit of this, but the occasional rest can do wonders for practice. It's okay to take a break sometimes. I often find that– even if I feel guilty about it–after a break from practice, I almost always come back to the cushion, to the mat, to the journaling page, with new insight and something fresh to take away. It gives you an opportunity to get an overview of the practice. Why am you doing it? How am you doing it? Is it helping you? 3. Freshen up your practice. Hone in on an aspect of the practice and you could take this in different ways. You could hone in on something that feels challenging. That's not working for you. Try a different focus for your meditation - meditate on awareness of thoughts rather than the breath as the focus of my meditation. Soften your your gaze, so to speak and use your thoughts as the object of your meditation, which is a little bit more challenging and say, you're trying that, and it's not really working. Ask: What's not fresh about this? Break it down. We all develop habits–and sometimes those habits get stale. One way you can break it down is to do very short, frequent meditations. Try 30 second meditations, 30 seconds of doing the meditation that you've chosen and then just sit and you don't even necessarily have to have a focus for the next minute. 4. Mix it up. I like to bring practices together to see how they support each other. So if you find that none of the above methods work, try sequencing your practices. Sit for a short meditation before journaling, or vice versa. Meditate before your yoga practice, or do your yoga before your meditation. Sometimes mixing it up can give you new insights as you work with the energy of each practice.

This is why I offer the journaling and journeying sessions on fourth Saturdays each month.Practice is a life-long adventure. It’s never static, because we are always evolving. But sometimes life changes suddenly and drastically and you need a bit more support. If you find yourself in the middle of a big life transition– which can sometimes be really traumatic events– you can develop a practice to support you through it.

During the month of October, my signature mini-course - Essential Tools for Navigating Life Transitions - includes a special bonus. Find out more here.