Image borrowed from Nadira Jamal’s website.

I’m about a week and a half into the 9-week online course “How to Build a Sustainable Practice Habit” with Nadira Jamal. In fact, tomorrow is the 10-day deadline for deciding if I want to drop out for a full refund, and I’m happy to say that I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth and I’m sticking with it for the whole thing. Some initial thoughts…

I enjoy listening to my weekly audio recording on Monday. Nadira Jamal’s voice is warm and friendly, and she speaks really clearly so it’s easy to follow along with what she says. I’ve also been using these recordings to practice my ability to focus instead of multi-tasking. For the half-hour that I’m listening, I don’t let myself load up my browser to check social media, or play on my phone.

Maybe it’s because I’m a huge NERD and maybe it’s because I was homeschooled and never did traditional homework as a kid, but I also really enjoy doing my homework on Monday. Any dance-related thing that involves homework makes me happy, because it makes me feel like I’m going the extra mile for my dance by putting in some sort of effort off the dance floor.

As for the practice itself, we’re still in the “ridiculously low minimum” portion of things. Last week was two minutes and this week is five. I usually go a little above and beyond. I still honor the intention of building the habit by starting small, but instead of searching out 2 minute and 5 minute songs, I stick with doing one or two songs as appropriate. Part of me is impatient to be doing more (and I might do a longer practice this Friday, since I don’t have any dance classes Fri night), but most of me is glad that we’re starting small, because it means I’ll still be working with small chunks of time when I’m fitting my practice in before working at the bead show!

So far, I’ve been sticking with having my practice in the morning right after breakfast. I’ve always resisted the idea of dancing in the morning, because I can’t function before breakfast and I didn’t want to dance right after eating… But I realized that was a dumb excuse, because I eat a bowl of oatmeal. It’s not like I’m having some giant plate of bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. I can dance immediately after eating without feeling like I’m going to be sick.

I’ve found a few pleasant side effects of practicing every morning: I start the day off with a sense of satisfaction. I don’t feel like the need to practice is looming over my head, followed by a sense of failure if I don’t manage to practice. And once I’ve started my day off with dancing, I’m much more likely to go tackle some chores or dance-related things. That little burst of energy from dancing helps shake me out of the desire to veg out on the computer until two in the afternoon, followed by a couple panicked hours of chores and maybe dance.

Because I’m practicing for such short amounts of time, and it’s only been 9 days, I can’t say that I’ve seen any improvements in my dance. However, I’ve been using these little practice sessions as a sort of check-in with my body, to see what movements need work, so I’ll know what to drill during my longer practices.

I purchased the upgraded package that includes daily check-ins and access to a private FB group, and I’m really enjoying that aspect of it, too. It’s nice to be able to chat with the other dancers who are taking the course, to support each other and work through our struggles, and also to post cute pet pictures, because that was inevitable!

Over all, I’m really happy that I decided to sign up for this and I feel like it is just what I need to learn how to really practice every day instead of squeezing in some belly rolls at bed time.