Many people rely on their work to provide their lives with a regularity of structured time. Up at 7, at work by nine, break at 10:30, lunch at 1, and so on. In this situation, the basic skeleton of a practice is already there. For instance, from 7 to 8, you could stretch, exercise or meditate, shower, and have breakfast. At the other end of the work day, you could build another structure of time which would compliment your morning regime of proper diet, exercise and meditation/reading.
The key to utilizing and maintaining a positive structure in your life is regularity. How you protect and nurture your positive structured activities is a measure of how you feel about yourself. People who live in chaos reap more chaos. Eventually they burn out. Their lives are hills and valleys of crisis and elation.
With aging, the foundations laid earlier in life must support an increased burden of physical challenges, emotional losses, and periodic disease. This is inevitable. Therefore, building a solid foundation, a structure, while you are vital and strong, will serve you well in later life.
Practice is difficult, but having no practice is more difficult in the long run.
