Hi Alan
I'm a bit like you. I have a whole smorgasbord of techniques and have sometimes got lost in knowing which ones to choose on a given day. What I did was really look at myself and where I wanted to go. What I came up with was this.
I realised that all my psychological/emotional hangups had their roots in feeling disconnected from the Infinite. Therefore the most important practices had to move me from disconnection to communion with God/Source/Pure Consciousness (whatever you want to call it) - in other words my true Beingness.
Then it became easier to choose. Meditation and prayer (chanting is to me a form of prayer) had to be a daily practice, at least once a day if not twice. I saw that the chanting/prayer, and yoga eased me into the meditation so they had to be there.
Then when/if I get into trouble - stress or surfacing issues - I add psychological/emotional techniques. Doing those allows me to take time to address what's surfacing. Keith speaks of them as the guests that enter our home. They have to be greeted and spoken to because they're often coping mechanisms that aren't working any more. But I don't use these techniques unless I need to.
So what I'm trying to say here is, take the time to examine your situation, and figure out what you really need. Then make a strong resolution to do that for a certain period of time, a month at least, then stick to it.
You'll feel good about yourself and give yourself a chance to develop some skills in the areas that you need. There are lots of good techniques that work and I don't think it matters a whole lot which one you use. It's the time spent and the degree of openness that'll make the difference. Just use your intuition to pick one and go for it!
Hope that helps
Bhavya
