All About When - Sadhana Day 4 of 40

Welcome to Season 3 and Day 4 of a 40 Day Series on Sadhana! Day 4 is all about the when. What time of day are you going to devote to your personal practice? Write down when your practice will take place day to day, ideally at the same time. Share it with a friend or loved one to help you make it happen. Thanks for going on this journey with me!

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Transcript

Welcome to the True for You podcast. I'm your host, Renee Cupples, and we're on Season three, episode four. This is day four of a 40-day series where I'm talking about sadhana. Sadhana is a spiritual practice that leads to realization, and traditionally it is done in yoga for 40 days. I learned the formula of sadhana doing yoga and meditation and some processing work after, and I did it in a collective. So the way that I learned it was pretty unique in that I felt like I had others holding me accountable to the practice. It wasn't, to me, just a solo practice, and having those people to show up for was something that helped me show up. So having you all to show up for is helping me show up and talk about something that I'm passionate about and that has helped me in my life. 

So we walked through, in day one, an introduction to sadhana. Day two, our focus was on intention, the why behind why would you practice something like this? And then day three was all about the how. How are you gonna go about making it happen, making a plan? What are the specifics of what you're committing to? And today we're gonna focus a little on the when. So in our introduction to sadhana, I went over a little bit about how traditionally sadhana is done first thing in the morning, ideally right when you wake up. You can roll out your mat, bust out your meditation pillow, and there's something about that sacred hour or maybe even a few hours, the sun is rising or maybe just before sunrise, and there's like this sacred quiet that happens. A lot of times if you wake up and then fall back asleep during that chunk of time, you could have really vivid dreams. So it's something that maybe your connection to spirit is a little bit deeper just upon waking, where you're not kind of fully tapped into the processes of your day yet. Your mind is pretty, maybe not blank, but fresh, right? 

And so that time is a super powerful and sacred time to practice, and it's something where you can just wake up and take a few intentional deep breaths and just have gratitude for being alive another day, right? So that in and of itself could be your practice before looking at your phone or, interacting with other humans ideally, right, is when you're gonna, be practicing that. But we do allow for some flexibility because of life. A lot of times you have things going on. 

Personally I have really enjoyed times of evening sadhana. Practicing just before going to sleep can help quiet the mind and prepare for rest. So there is a lot of power in being able to do it any time of day, but you're really holding yourself accountable to the time of day because putting it in your calendar, setting some reminders, it's gonna be something that, you can check off. It's done. Getting it done in the beginning of the day, you don't have to chase it the rest of the day. S

o when do you like to practice sadhana? Or if you were to practice sadhana, what time of day do you think would be ideal for you, and what might it look like for you? This first week is all about laying the foundation and setting us up for the basics, what things are gonna look like, what type of practices we're gonna be leaning into, and then we're gonna get a little bit deeper as the weeks go on, and the practice can sometimes become a little bit more challenging when you're off of the first fresh week. How do you lean into, - I would say, what is something that you want to show up for every day for 40 days? And that can feel like a big question, so it's important to get specific about your why, about your how, and about your when. So that's day four, and I'll be back tomorrow for day five. Take care.