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An excerpt from The Power of Daily Practice 
by Eric Maisel, PhD

Are you trying to finish your novel? Do you want to build your own business? The impact of having a consistent practice focused on your life goals cannot be underestimated. Prolific author and creativity coach Dr. Eric Maisel has been working with artists and creative people for more than thirty years. His new book, The Power of Daily Practice: How Creative and Performing Artists (and Everyone Else) Can Finally Meet Their Goals (New World Library, September 8, 2020) is a thorough and holistic approach to meeting the goals and challenges of creating an authentic and effective daily practice.

We hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

In my experience, the simpler the practice, the more powerful it is and the more likely you are to maintain it over time. One reason that it ought to be kept simple is that if there is even a whiff of difficulty or complexity attached, it becomes really hard to crack through everyday resistance and get to your practice.

You wake up in the morning. Maybe you’re going to write, and maybe you’re not going to write. On one side of the ledger is your desire to write. On the other side are all of your bad feelings about your current book manuscript. Those bad feelings produce a heaviness that as likely as not will prevent you from writing. If, however, you have a simple daily practice in place that begins with a super-simple mantra, like “I write every day,” you’ve increased your chances of writing on that day, even as heavy as you feel.

If you feel heavy and you also have to face a complicated practice with lots of demands (A thousand words every day, damn it!) and lots of moving parts (Is the temperature sixty-eight degrees? Is the light coming in from the east? Has the rooster next door crowed three times?), that emotional heaviness combined with practice heaviness is a recipe for a writing day skipped.

Simplicity is both a cognitive sort of thing and a felt sort of thing. As a cognition, it might be a thought such as “I’m off to my practice” or “Time to practice” or “Here I go!” As a felt sort of thing, it is the same body lightness that comes when you anticipate something being easy. It’s like a sigh and a smile rather than a groan and a frown. It’s like a pillow rather than a rock. Picture something being really easy. Feel the ease in your body?

You might combine these two ideas, of simplicity and of ease, into the following ceremonial mantra: “I’m light, and I’m off to practice.” Imagine how lovely it would be if every day you were able to say, “I’m light, and I’m off to practice.” Can you remember the childlike simplicity of running out the door to play? There was nothing in the world easier. Be as easy as you can be and keep your daily practice as simple as is humanly possible.

Remember that we’re talking about your practice itself and not the content of your practice. The content of your practice may be very complicated. Maybe you’re working on a hard problem in physics or in the app you’re creating. Your practice can still be blissfully simple. Even if the song you’re writing is challenging, your practice can still be simple. Even if the mathematical problem you’re trying to solve is knotty, your practice can still be simple. Keep this important distinction in mind.

Robert, a workshop participant, shared his experience:

I got very excited about the idea of a life purpose practice where every day I would look at my list of life purpose choices and decide which one or two I was absolutely going to get to on that day. If I’d kept it that simple, it would have been a beautiful thing! But for some reason I had to overlay it with all sorts of demands: that I prioritize my life purpose choices, that I tackle at least one from my top three choices every day, that I spend an equal amount of time on each life purpose choice so as not to shortchange any, and fifteen other demands.

It started to feel like the worst kind of job imaginable! I had to chuck that whole way of looking at my practice out the window and return to the beautifully simple starting place: looking at my list each morning and making a choice or two. Period. That made all the difference! It turned a chore into a light thing.

Sandy explained how it worked for her:

I had a hard time defining my practice. I wanted to write, I wanted to paint, I had health issues I knew needed addressing, I was craving a spiritual practice or maybe something like a meaning-making practice...I couldn’t make up my mind what my practice was “really about.” So, of course, I never started it, and I never engaged with it.

It wasn’t working trying to decide what was most important. Each thing was important in its own way. I was about to throw in the towel, and then I had an inspiration. I decided that I would take “simple” to mean just showing up. I would just go to my designated daily practice space in the spare bedroom and do whatever needed doing on that day. I would just go there and stay put for an hour.

That kind of made for a magical change. One day I would work on my nonfiction book. Another day I would research alternative health treatments. Another day I would sketch. I realized that it didn’t matter what I did — each thing had its own importance and its own resonance. My practice simplified itself to “I show up for an hour.” And during the next two months I got a lot written, I created a new health regimen, and I made a lot of meaning, one hour at a time.

Food for Thought

What does a simple practice look like to you?
Is it your nature to make things more complicated than they need to be? If so, what might you do to rein in that impulse when it comes to creating your daily practice?
Explain in your own words how a practice might be kept simple even if the content of the practice is difficult or complicated.

Eric Maisel, PhD, is the author of more than fifty books on creativity and personal growth, including The Power of Daily Practice. Widely regarded as America’s foremost creativity coach, he writes the Rethinking Mental Health blog for Psychology Today and facilitates creativity and deep writing workshops around the world. He lives in Walnut Creek, California. Find out more about his work at EricMaisel.com.

Excerpted from the book The Power of Daily Practice. Copyright ©2020 by Bridgit Dengel Gaspard. Printed with permission from New World Library.

In the last year I have felt like something negative is following me around. In fact, I have had several accidents, such as falling down stairs or falling in the garden. Each time I felt like I was being pushed, and in one instance, an observer said it looked like you were pushed down the stairs. I also sometimes feel like someone/thing is poking at me. Is it possible that I have attracted something negative to me or that someone who wishes me ill has sent something negative my way?

J.

Astrea:

Many homes and businesses in my area of South Texas are haunted by beings that every so often attach themselves to living people and shadow them. At times they come and go, but for the most part, once this begins, the feeling is constant until the spirit moves on or until it becomes bored and transfers to a different living person, goes into the Light, or fades into Perpetual Darkness.

Negative energy can certainly take its toll on anyone. It may consist only of other people's thoughts and feelings, or be some leftover buzz from an earthbound or lost soul that has refused to let go of their last existence. On occasion the energy can be dark and even dangerous, but that is very rare.

If a person is sensitive to those who have crossed over, it's important to avoid excess in all things, especially drugs and alcohol, for both substances are known to be magnets for negative beings. Sensitive people need to avoid negative LIVING people because they draw that energy too. If the person who is pulling that energy towards you is not spiritually aware, chances are that entity will land (and stay) with you.

When you feel you're being followed, mentally surround yourself with bright White Light, and then surround that with mirrors to reflect the negativity and danger you feel away from you and back to its source. It may take a few weeks, but if this entity's energy is dark in nature, then the entity is LAZY. Dark entities become fatigued quickly when dealing with spiritual people, so they get burned out and move on.

Recently, at the celebration of the Summer Solstice held at Stonehenge, the relentless rain caused a mass negative feeling to attack the energy of the crowd there. Most of the people present said that they went home without the usual feeling of being happy and uplifted on The Long Day.

This is an example of how negative energy can follow people home from a group that holds even the very best intentions. This time the door was opened by the rain and the bad feelings of some of the celebrants there. While I wasn't glad to hear about it, I was glad to be ABLE to hear what happened. Things like this are so much better accepted now - this story was actually reported on one of the major national news networks!

*****

Susyn:

It's quite possible that these events are being caused by an outside source. You don't mention if these events only happen in your home or if this is something that can occur anywhere and at any time.

More than likely, you've awakened or drawn a spirit into your home, and need to have it removed. This is a much more likely scenario than the idea that someone who wishes you ill is sending negative energy your way.

As you go about your home, take note of any cold spots you encounter, as there could be a portal in your home through which this spirit travels. It would be helpful to sit down and write out a log of when, where and how these incidents occurred so you can determine patterns or pinpoint areas of your home or garden where these attacks seem to take place. Once you do, you may be able to determine if they are becoming more frequent or stronger as well.

Once you've gotten things down on paper, it's time to find a Spiritualist or psychic who is willing to come to your home and evaluate what is happening. The psychic or medium will be able to pinpoint the problem, and may be able to identify the spirit or at least determine whether it is the ghost of someone who once lived in the house or a negative entity that attached itself to you at some point.

These professionals will initially try to clear the spirit out of the house or away from you through certain cleansing rituals. Though one can often perform these rituals on one's own, at this point it sounds like outside help will be more effective.

If the spirit or entity is stronger than the mediums who try to clear your house, the activity could increase. If this happens, you will need to contact an exorcist or paranormal team to rid you of these problems. Because this phenomenon is becoming more and more common, there are many paranormal professionals out there who handle such things. Try searching Google or contact the owner of a local metaphysical store for referrals.

It's best to nip this in the bud before it gets worse or physical harm comes your way. In the meantime, pick up some lapis lazuli, turquoise and quartz crystal stones to generate an extra layer of protection around you. Place them around your house, especially in spots where these activities have been most prevalent.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.