discipline

[axa]

Something I have lacked all of my life is discipline.  I would make "rules" for myself and break them whenever there was a distraction.  I would procrastinate about what I was GOING to do but rarely did. 

I would like to explore the concept of discipline.  I see it as self love.  Honouring oneself, saying I am worthy to take the time to eat well, to work well, to exercise well, to not abandon.   It seems some others here struggle with discipline also.  I think my abandonment of my own discipline has been connected with being desperate for some fix from others, in the hope that somehow it would nourish me, it did not.  I am anxious to put my discipline practise in place by doing the mundane things, getting up in time to eat a healthy breakfast etc.

Hope some others can give me some insight into their discipline

axa

[teartracks]

Hi axa,

Great topic!   Oh my heavens, you're really going for the gold in your 'new' life. 

I searched the old noggin and I don't seem to have much to offer on the subject right this moment, but I'm going to be reading along and if at some point I think I have anything of value to ad I'll jump in.  In the meantime, I so like the way you're sounding and going about settling into your new city and life.

tt

[Hopalong]

Hi Axa,
I can relate to this struggle a great deal.

my abandonment of my own discipline has been connected with being desperate for some fix from others

One of the things I noticed in the interview with the hypnotherapist the other day was that he talked about skipping over blame and exhortation. Those aren't the things that work effectively on the mind. Hmm. So I went and looked up his book, The NOW Moment. And read the Amazon reviews. Several reviewers said it was the most useful and positive self-help book they'd ever read, because he did not do the "You just need will power and discipline..." thing. At all.

He just gave tools that could create discipline. Instead of banging people about lacking it.

I do think, and have been mulling the last few days, that I respond very well to hypnosis because it's such an intimate experience (even with a voice on tape). And I do crave that "fix" of intimacy. That can be pathological when I'm all needy and Co-D, and other times it feels like joy, a presence that can fill an absence in my life.

I think a full live doesn't mean you never notice an absence or feel lonely. And a productive life doesn't mean you always demonstrate discipline.

While I use my friendly experts-in-the-ears, I'll be very interested in reading this dicussion you've started. Great topic.

thanks,
Hops

[Bella_French]

Dear Axa,
I sometimes wonder about this too. I think I was overly disciplined as a child and had way too many parent-like responsiblities, so I have struggled with inventing my own `rules' as an adult.

I kind of have a pendulum which swings from over-discipline to not much discipline, and i struggle with `in between'. I don't know why this is. I sometimes think its because I lost my childhood, and psychologically I `need' the experience of being care free at times, like i should have experienced as a child. So i guess I'm not sure if this is good or bad? But you definitely have point about discipline being a form of self care. i haven't looked at it like that before, and I do appreciate this thought.

Axa, have you always lacked discipline, or do you swing like  do?

X Bella

[Ami]

Dear Axa,
  I think that you are talking about the larger issue of self love(IMO). I am on this subject,right now,in my own healing.
  I am seeing how I went against myself  INSTEAD of FOR myself. I am trying to revise this ,right now, by working with my Inner child who has so much wisdom that it is mind blowing.
                                                             Love  Ami

[Iphi]

At the studio where I take yoga classes they have a sign up on the wall that says "Discipline is remembering what you want."

Just like CB123 said, in other words!

Congratulations on that 15 pounds CB, great!  I just started taking a zumba class at the office, which is basically salsa dancing aerobics, and it made me realize how much I love dancing and haven't done it in soooo long.  When I was younger it was one of the main ways I transformed negative energy into positive energy.  It also made me realize I am a lot more sluggish at the moment than I was when I was 19.  

[axa]

Great thought provoking posts, thanks,

I really like the idea of practise rather than discipline and will think in terms of practising self care rather than being heavy handed with the discipline stick......... thanks Shunned.


Discipline is remembering what you want.......... this one is going on my notice board.

Bella, I am a swinger(in the discipline sense of the word that is!)  I make rules stick to them for a while then break them, this is followed by a period of beating myself up.  A sick cycle.  I am bored with it.  I want to take care of myself physically and spiritually.  This is what I want and I will practise this.

many thanks,

axa

[Bella_French]

I like the terms `practice' and  `remembering what I want' more than `discipline' too; thanks Iphi and Shunned.

Those were very insightful words, CB. Whenever I swing away from a `discipline' it is because the activity has lost its meaning for me. And the stuff that I do that fits in with my life purpose, doesn't require discipline (only that I slow down and pace myself, lol).

X Bella

[lighter]

Crikey, Axa.

Are we twins, lol?