I witness it as my yoga students wiggle in place, scratch an itch, squint their eyes open & look to me, ensuring they aren’t supposed to be elsewhere.
I hear it in the subtle pain of my clients’ voices - forcing to-do lists, questioning why nothing has changed yet - even though they put forth enormous amounts of effort; they have been for years.
I write it in my own fear lists every night: “I am not doing enough. I need to work harder.”
& I see it in the casual exchanges between each other. Yesterday, I ran into a yoga student who had taken class for the first time last week. He enjoyed practice, and it was difficult - to which his friend chuckled: “wasn’t it restorative?”
There is a powerful & unspoken, yet completely absorbed assumption that hard work & challenge is “the way” - to get things done, to grow, to become stronger, to experience success, to live.
Difficulty, as some point, became a prideful & irreplaceable experience; our only valuable experience.
The truth is, the path to “success” & accomplished to-dos or growth or a fulfilling life likely includes SOME challenging experiences. And. What I witness & hear & write & see… is a total lack of the opposite: our ability to just be.
We wiggle in savasana at the end of yoga because it has become easier to push ourself to do something “hard” than it is to lay still.
We furrow our brows and work 12 hour days because it feels more comfortable to exhaust than to trust.
We manifest fears such as “not doing enough,” while it may be more accurate to fear we are doing too much.
Might I flip the scrip? If only, as an experiment…
What if our 10 minutes in savasana transported us to the epiphany or solution or resolution we otherwise would have spent months seeking?
What if we trust we are enough - with or without our to-do lists completed? What if, in a way we cannot fully comprehend, this very trust & feeling of “enough” is what allows us to complete every task we dream.
What if we empower ourselves & those around us to embrace our rest - whether it feels challenging or not? What if giving each other permission to experience ease propels fantastic growth & life & fulfillment?
What if it were easier?
Why are we afraid of ease?
Even if we desire to choose the belief that challenge is best: What if allowing ourself to be - with ease - is the hardest thing we could do?
