Effortless living
I wanted to explore an interesting concept that I recently uncovered. Many a time I have tried hobbies or tasks that I have always approached with great vigor and focus. My mind takes over and everything that ensues in carrying out the task becomes a precise sequence of procedures. The chore then becomes just that, a chore, and invariably not met with success. Whether it is a golf swing, learning a new sport, tackling a new endeavor or any thing that suits your fancy and requires some level of understanding it does not matter. What matters is how you approach the said activity. You can either use your mind and follow protocol or use your heart and soul and follow it instinctively. Obviously I am not suggesting that you can fly a plane without learning basics of flying, knowing procedures etc. yet once you are flying, the experience must become wholesome. This is not done with the mind yet instead with the use of the heart and soul. It is these 2 senses that will make the difference between a rocky flight and a smooth enjoyable time.
When you see professional golfers playing a tournament, there is a feeling you get of awe as they effortlessly swing the club and displace the ball to exactly where they intend for it to land. This is called getting out of your head and into the moment. That is where the effortless life exists, in the moment. It is not about doing the task. It is not about completing the task. Moreover it is about being there in the moment that the task unfolds. Once you know the basics and fundamentals in anything that you do, allow that those skills to sink in and just do it. Nike did not coin that advertising phrase by accident, JUST DO IT ! Being in the total moment, you carry out your once perfectly mind planned event with effortless motion. Living life effortlessly is a state of being and not doing. It is the difference between soul-full or “mind-less” living and mind-full living. Letting yourself go and letting your Self take over is a subtle remark with a major distinction and change in outcome. A great athlete is one who makes the committment with the whole of their heart and the average athlete makes it whole heartedly with their mind and gusto.
Being in the moment I grant you is not easy. However I would submit that it is meant to be easy. As you collect each moment to moment of staying aware and present you may find that you end up with a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years and soon a lifetime of living effortlessly and a fully on purpose life. When you are surprised that suddenly a golf swing was so perfect that you cannot believe that you did it, then that shot was living effortlessly. When you are shocked how easily you were able to complete that marathon faster than you have done in the past, then you are living your life effortlessly. When you submit that you are going to live your life in this manner, that feeling has to come from deep within and accompanied by a surrender into the moment. You may almost feel like you are floating, and that is probably because you have ejected your “mind” out of you and what is left is YOU. Anything that you choose to do can also be made into an effortless state regardless whether it is at home or at the workplace. Let not your “job” become so monotonous that you do not enjoy it, yet instead effortless that you are the best at your job at any time. Just remember that effortless living does not mean easy living, it means on purpose and soulful living.
That was easy, I must not be doing it right. That was effortless, I am alive.
