It takes a year...

It takes at least a year for 15 minutes of meditation to become a habit.

When you have created the habit of "doing" for 30-40-50+ years, creating a new habit of sitting and "doing nothing" is going to take a while.

So many students get frustrated because they don't see any progress with their flexibility when they come to yoga class. But, what they are forgetting is that they come to class, maybe, 1 hour a week, and sit/run/walk/drive/etc. for the rest of the hours of their week. How can there be change? Or, rather, change may still come, but at a dinosaur's pace. In other words, you may be extinct before your hamstrings get any looser.

That is why the practice is so important. If you sit for a few days or weeks or months, awaken a little bit, become a little more sensitive, then stop, let life take over, then, there will be frustration. Unless, you acknowledge that, oh yes, didn't practice. Of course. There has to be a reaction to the non-action too. Remember that choosing not to practice is a choice. Choosing the To-Do list over the 15 minutes of sitting is a choice. You may not think it is. You may think that life is just too busy right now. But, that is a way of training the will too. That is training the weakness of the will.

Of course, there will always be the curve ball. There will always be the vacation, the illness, the crazy actual insane curve ball of real life that can't be ignored and then, the practice really comes to life, and all that you were working for is put into real use. Patience. Surrender. Breath. At some point, this is all we will have.

And, That, is why we make ourselves sit. Now. Every day. Planting seeds. For when the time comes, when we need our inner strength to make it through, we will have done all that we could have.

Do the work. Be receptive. --Charry