practice makes a habit

Since our house has been on the market we have had to get into the practice of keeping our house more orderly and clean. Not an easy feat with this gang, but we keep trying.

Last weekend I got the chance to enjoy some time in our current house. I got to spend numerous hours alone in it, attending to its needs. Actually, attending to my needs is more like it: listening to music, not talking to anyone, being alone, focusing on the tasks at hand. These activities are luxuries for me at this point in my life, and the quiet time reminded me about how much I need such nourishment.

Last weekend was the first time in my history of being a parent that all our laundry was folded and put away, all toys were where they belong and the dishes were clean and in the cupboards. The floors were vacuumed and mopped, everything dusted and in its proper place! Am I bragging? Yes! Anyone who knows how we usually live should be impressed. It only took me about 3 hours of solitary work to accomplish this, and I LOVED it. Plus I really needed it to prepare myself for a "vacation" with small children.

Wouldn't it be great if this forced practice of keeping our house in order might turn into an actual habit? I'm really enjoying my home more while it is more orderly. It keeps my mind clearer just being in more cleared out space.

A practice that has become a daily habit for me is doing the Spring Forest Qigong active exercises.Back in mid JuneI was desperate to become functional again, so I began doing the active exercises once a day to see if they could help get me out of the hole I was living in. While my mom was here I met people at Pathways and at a caregiver support group through the Women's Cancer Resource Center who believed they'd been healed of cancer by practicing qigong, why not try it to help me with depression? Now, after 6 weeks of daily practice, I'm doing the exercises because I like how they make me feel. I get a tingly feeling in my hands and in my head when I do it, and although I don't understand what is going on, it feels like qigong is really good for me. If anyone out there has suffered from depression, I definitely recommend that you give qigong a try just to see what happens.