What I Practice Instead

What I Practice Instead

On integration, pace, and staying

I don’t practice being present.

I practice staying.

Staying when clarity doesn’t soothe.

Staying when the body hesitates.

Staying when the moment is ordinary

and doesn’t reward attention.

Integration isn’t insight settling in.

It’s the body learning

it doesn’t have to brace.

Learning happens slowly—

in repeated mornings,

in familiar triggers,

in the pause before reacting.

Nothing dramatic announces it.

The nervous system updates quietly,

like trust does.

I notice it in small ways:

my breath returns on its own.

My shoulders drop without instruction.

I ask fewer questions

that need answers.

What I practice isn’t understanding.

It’s allowance.

Letting the moment be unfinished.

Letting myself be human inside it.

This is how truth stays—

not by being grasped,

but by being lived.

Flower InBloom

Author’s Note:

This piece completes a quiet arc—Now, When Seeking Softens, and What I Practice Instead. Together, they trace the movement from noticing, to listening, to living what remains.