Best-selling author and screenwriter Steven Pressfield publishes a weekly newsletter called Writing Wednesdays. He often talks about the practice of being a creative. This is similar to the practice of entering a spiritual practice as we delve into a deeper spiritual life.
Recently he quotes a dance teacher, “This class is a practice. When you step inside this studio to dance, leave behind your fear, your competitiveness with others, your anger, your worry, your grudges, your complaints, your dissatisfaction with your lot, your greed for glory, your avarice for attention. You are here to dance as well as you can. Leave your ego and your problems outside.”
Pressfield adds his own advice:
In other words, when our motivation is grounded in our ego, we do not have a practice. Or to flip that statement on its head, the aim of a practice is effacement of the ego.
Whether we enter prayer, meditation, study, or even service, these are foundational words. Leave the ego behind—that part of us that seeks control and “me-first” attitudes.
Faith Venture 
Leave a comment