Having a set and scheduled daily spiritual practice... or not.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/quakerpagan/2015/07/toward-a-daily-spiritual-practice.html

I just read the blog post above. This really speaks to me. With chronic illness, I have a VERY hard time with a set daily schedule or routine. My symptoms vary in severity from day to day, hour to hour, even sometimes minute to minute. For some reason I've gotten very hard on myself about not having a set daily routine of a spiritual practice. But it's just not always realistic for myself. However, most days I DO actually do something related to my spiritual path. I read books or websites related to my spiritual path. I spend a few minutes outside checking in with what's going on out there, looking to see if the Red tailed hawk pair are around, noticing the birds and bugs flying around as the dogs race around and play in the backyard. I think about my spiritual practice and what I'd like to do, even if I'm not up to doing it that day. I think about my personal spirit guides, pray, and make offerings. I work with my crystals, or even just tend to them by dusting them and rearranging them. I draw a daily Oracle card from one of my various decks and look at a daily Tarot card on my multitude of Tarot apps I have on my tablet. All of these things "count" towards a daily spiritual practice. So why am I so hard on myself for not having a set schedule or doing exactly the same "spiritual" stuff at the same time every day? Who knows... I'm rereading all I've just written and that's a LOT of different things that I do on different days that are related to my spiritual path. I'm not "slacking" at all. Guess I need to stop being so hard on myself and let go these preconceived ideas of what my spiritual path should look like.

I started this post early yesterday. While I was surfing around in Facebookland, a FB friend shared this blog post.

http://www.tierneysadler.com/2015/07/72015making-one-better-decision.html

Seeing this blog post made my day!! It gave me hope and a new method to try for moving forward. It's not related to a set schedule, but to examining the decisions we make and trying to make better ones. Each day you decide what better decision you want to make that's different from one you're used to making. It can be different every day, but can't be something you already do on a regular basis. I feel like this is SO doable, even with how my physical (and mental) condition fluctuates so much. I have a phrase on the lock screen of my phone and tablet. This usually reflects something I want to focus on, kinda like an affirmation or reminder. I've already changed my phrase to "One better decision" as my focus for the time being. This really seems like a doable way for me to start making some of the changes I want to make, without it being too overwhelming.