Day 7 of 27 —Practice and the Pandemic

June 27, 2021

My post from yesterday needs more exploration. As a friend summarised it, ‘Two very different disciplines, but constancy in practice can definitely benefit both.’ Intuitively it makes sense. But perhaps the adaptation from one to the other might need more than just a ‘literal’ translation. Or perhaps I see them very differently.

 

I do write consistently. If nothing else just morning pages. I discovered Julia Cameron’s morning pages in 2011. Many artists swear by them. The stream of consciousness writing, long-hand, of three A4 pages is supposed to get the mental clutter and anxiety out of the way and free up the self for creative or simply productive work. Furthermore since nobody reads them no censor is looking over one’s shoulder and tearing down what goes on the page. 

 

Before I say anything more I will say that the twelve week Artist’s Way program is hugely amazing. It includes the morning pages with many more explorations that really tick-tock thoughts and emotions and rearrange something internally. 

 

But morning pages I think are like the 10,000 hours of practice that supposedly help one to master anything. But do they? Yet fewer hours of deliberate practice—practice with goals, with a plan, with guidance and analysis of mistakes—might bring mastery. When I was a brown belt one of my Sensei’s had said to me, ’10,000 repetitions of a kata (one I was trying to learn then) will not help you if you don’t think about the movements while doing them.’ He probably sensed my wandering attention when he said that. 

 

Doing karate on autopilot does not make me better at it. It might help me get a workout, shift my mood because of the endorphins it releases, but it will not improve my karate. Morning pages feel like that right now (and I reserve the right to change my mind). I think I am done with them. Phew – there I’ve said it. 

 

So coming back to karate and writing in the pandemic. I know part of what was different in both. In those days when the mind became sluggish and foggy my karate practice remained clear and focused. As soon as lockdowns began Sensei’s all over the world began putting out training videos. They were inspiration, they were guidance, and they led to deliberate practice. Besides, being responsible for teaching two two-hour classes each week was motivation enough to keep the mind always involved in what I was doing. And the year of doing this in the year when everything else fell away built a deep trust in it. 

 

Whereas with writing something else happened and if anything I lost trust. I even stopped trusting morning pages. There is more to unearth here. I could go back to the past, the year just gone, and try to ask why and what did happen. I could just continue on with this 27-day deliberate challenge I’ve set  myself and see what it brings.