on the Middle Way, health and YOU

I have aways been a big fan of the Middle Way. If you aren’t familiar with this term, it is a major aspect of the Dhamma (the teaching of the Buddha) that cautions seekers of happiness (which he called enlightenment) away from extremes - namely, indulgence in sensual and materialistic pleasures on the one hand and extreme asceticism on the other.

The Buddha himself came from a very materially advantaged world and a family that sought to shield him from the harsh reality of human suffering in the outside world. When he broke free, he saw the extent of human suffering - whether that was from extreme physical sickness, disease or deformity, or poverty and extreme material hardship. In his initial quest for enlightenment, he did a lot of extreme austerity practices such as not eating or drinking for long periods and exposing himself to extreme temperature and outdoor conditions to test his austerity in times of difficult as a way of doing “penance.”

Once he reached enlightenment, he realized that self inquiry need not involve physical austerity and he advised others to live in the world without doing extreme practices. To live moderately within a regular spiritual practice. :) This is called the Middle Way.

This concept of the Middle Way, in my mind, is relevant to any of us seekers - of happiness, health, contentment. I was thinking about this last week when I listened to a great podcast on sleep quality, a topic near and dear to my heart both because of my own sleep challenges and in my work as a health coach. A quote that stuck with me was, “While sleep is necessary for life, we should not live to sleep.” There are times when my sleep was really bad and I felt like I was indeed revolving my life around creating conditions so I could sleep well. It was extreme and not very Middle Way -ish. Like all my eggs were in that one, kinda boring but at the time necessary, basket.

While there are times that we all have to deal with certain health issues and they do indeed dominate our life, a life centered entirely around optimal eating, optimal sleep, optimal exercise or fitness (you get the idea) would indeed be a rather boring (and also selfish) life. The idea is not to live in a perfectionistic and anal-retentive relationship to our body and body habits but to actually feel joy! And contentment! and happiness!

No.. or??

I say this newsletter friends as we move into a summer where so much of the world is gloriously open to us. Summer travels have already began and I, for one, am THRILLED to have adventures and go to shows and concerts, to hop on trains, to sit in sidewalk and beach cafes and experience life as locals in other localities different from mine. How great that we can do this again! But all the great habits we may have built around sleep, eating earlier, regular exercise and the like can kind of go out the window during these times too. I hear this all the time from my clients so it isn’t just you and me!

So how to maintain good, healthy, and REGULAR habits while enjoying travels and adventure? The Middle Way friends. I call this adhering to the Minimum Daily Practice.

What is that??

Anything we want to be “good at” - from playing a musical instrument, to athletic pursuits to eating well and even sleeping and meditating, we have to practice regularly. If we want to be writer, sitting at the computer for 5 hours just once a month will be far less effective than sitting and writing for a minimum of 5 minutes daily.. If we want to run a marathon next year, running a minimum of 15 minutes 5 times a week and building up is far better training than running 75 minutes once a month. Eating dinner before 7pm 4 nights a week is far better than eating at 6pm once a week and 10pm 6 nights a week. We gotta do things we want to have as habits on the regular. What on the regular means, depends on you. How often do you need to do (insert whatever health habit matters to you) for it to be PART of YOU.

Things we do regularly become part of our identity, so much so that they are non-negotiable in whether we do them or not. By regular, I do not mean being a slave to the habit, regardless of circumstance (see examples above :)), but rather developing a minimum practice that is part of your evolving reality.

For example, if you are, or desire to be, a regular meditator, what is the minimum amount you can commit to regardless of circumstances (on holiday, kid sick, big work deadline). THINK SMALL and MANAGEABLE. If you want to eat more veggies, what is the minimum number of servings or meals you want to include in your day? Regardless of circumstances, what can you absolutely commit to and still be a joyful human enjoying all aspects of summer living? If you want to keep exercising, how many times a week and what is the minimum number of minutes to keep it part of your identity as a sporty person?

I find it useful to write the minimal daily practice down! It makes it more concrete and tangible.. taking it out of hoooeee dream land and into an actionable reality. :)

I hope you found this helpful. I am a big fan of including joy with consistency in my coaching practice and with myself. My next group Ayurveda and nutrition coaching course happens in October, but I still work with people 1:1. While my Spain retreat in October is sold out, the Dolomites in October and my January 2023 Ski and Yoga retreat still have space.

We got one life folks. So let’s get on to living it in the best way. :)