What’s the best way to make a difference in the quality of your life. The answer lies not with one-time actions, which offer temporary results, but with embracing the concept of long-term pattern. Any discipline (playing a sport, learning a new language, utilizing a meditation) becomes a tool for growth when it’s performed daily. Starting out, hitting plateaus, sticking with it and pushing send on–these steps all lead toward personal transformation.
Nobody understands the benefits of praxis better than George Leonard, co-author of The Life We Are Given. Leonard, along with Esalen Institute co-founder Michael Murphy, developed Integral Transformative Practice, a pioneering program that streamlines exercise for people with busy schedules. Each 40-minute ITP session integrates elements of hatha yoga, martial arts, stretching, progressive relaxation, visualization, meditation and affirmation. ITP, tested for three years by the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, provided measurable gains in reaction time, short- and long-term memory, reasoning ability and global cognitive processing.
This allowed participants to become more focused...