good day practice no. 05
the practice of having good days
Edition no. 05· AUGUST 28, 2026
This week, we are working with theme called the practice of having good days.
I chose it partly because this is also the week I’m launching this site and the first edition of Good Day Practice. It felt like the right place to begin.
The name has a few meanings for me.
Day was my grandmother’s name, so the word has always carried something personal. And I like practice because it reaches beyond yoga. A practice is something we return to with attention. Something we learn by doing.
That is what I want this newsletter to be about.
Not how to manufacture a perfect life, or insist that every day be good. More about getting to know the things that help a day lean toward the good, then practicing making room for them when we can.
Because a good day is rarely one big thing.
More often, it gathers around smaller choices and conditions. More often, it is shaped by smaller choices and conditions. What we give our energy to. What we make room for. What we return to when things don’t go quite as planned.
I know a lot of us have been thinking about Dolly Parton this week and about the kind of impact one person can have on so many other lives. There is one line of hers that kept coming back to me:
“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
That feels close to the practice.
We don’t choose the wind.
We don’t decide everything that enters the day, what changes unexpectedly, what someone else brings into it, or what asks more of us than we thought it would.
But we can learn our sails.
We can notice what this particular day is asking for. We can get better at recognizing the things that steady us, wake us up, soften us, or move us a little closer toward the good.
And that feels like the right place for Good Day Practice to start.
The practice
Pay attention to the first response
You’ll need one or two yoga blocks.
Come onto your knees with the blocks underneath them for support.
Bring your hands to the floor and tuck all ten toes underneath you. Stay in Tabletop for a moment and let the toes begin to respond.
They may have quite a lot to say.
If you want more sensation, slowly walk your hands back toward your knees, shifting more of your weight toward your heels.
Stop somewhere you can still breathe easily.
Notice your first response.
Maybe the mind immediately says, get me out of here.
Before you do, give yourself another breath.
Not because staying longer is better, but because there is something useful about noticing the difference between the first reaction and what you actually need.
You can walk the hands forward to lessen the intensity, stay exactly where you are, or release the toes entirely.
Then come out and pause.
Notice the after.
The practice is recognizing what is here, listening closely enough to know what you need, and making an adjustment.
A small version of what we do all day long.
The Soundtrack
A few songs for helping the day along:
Soak It Up
Sol Rising
Who You Share It With
Layup
Better Get to Livin’
Dolly Parton
Good Day
Surfaces
Light of a Clear Blue Morning
Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah & Reba McEntire
Dolly Parton's America (Podcast)
Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee
The poem
She thought there must be somewhere
I learned years ago, from a woman who was very good at days,
that a day can be spoken to.
That you can meet it at the door
and put a hand on its shoulder
and steer it, a little, toward the good.
Let's have a good day, shall we?
Not as a bargain.
More like putting flowers on the table
though no one is coming over.
It does not always take.
Some days go where they were going anyway,
and you stand there holding the vase.
Fine. There is another one coming.
So take what is lovely seriously
without being at all a serious person about it.
And lean toward it with your whole unfinished life
and say,
Let's have a good day, shall we?
And then, dear thing,
you help it along.
THE THROUGHLINE
The more I teach, the less interested I am in the idea that practice is something we do only when we roll out a mat.
Practice is what happens when we pay attention often enough to learn something.
We begin to recognize what steadies us. What brings us back. Who makes the day better simply by being in it. What deserves more of our attention and what reliably takes too much.
We learn the sails.
And eventually, some of that practice moves outward.
A little patience can change the shape of someone else’s afternoon. A generous word can travel much farther than we know. Holding the door, making the call, staying another minute, making someone laugh when they needed it.
Sometimes helping someone else have a good day becomes part of what makes ours good too.
That is what I hope to collect here each week: things to notice, read, listen to, try, question, practice, and carry with you.
Not instructions for a good life.
Just a practice for more good days.
SOMETHING TO CARRY INTO YOUR WEEK
What is one small thing that helps a day feel good to you, and how might you make a little more room for it this week?
Smile & sigh. Yay.
Let’s make a good day of it,
Bevin
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