Naturally Effortless

In the most recent book I am reading, Stephen Rose's The Making of Memory, he describes how memories and behaviors form at the molecular level. It happens through continuous repetition, learning, remembering, and practice. Before anything becomes a memory and a behavior, we are unconditioned, or so-called natural.

How can we experience life and love unconditionally when everything is conditioned to those sensations and experiences? Too often, we are conditioned to function a certain way. This way of living shapes how we see the world and how we make connections.

From the moment we were born, our parents' and caretakers' job was to provide us with a greater understanding of how the world works, what it takes to grow into a functional human, and at the same time it was also the beginning of integrating a pre-lived notion of how our ancestors weathered the storms. It ultimately leads to a complex way of living, as it includes sensations and experiences we might never have lived, yet they may have shaped us into the person we are today.

In a recent intake form for a mentorship call on nutrition and care moving through perimenopause, one of many inquiries was: Your objectives (body, mind and spirit), and my answer was: simplicity, presence, ease, and fun. It was spontaneous, something that entailed everything that could be applied to my whole being. What also dawned on me was that that's my aim in life.

When something takes a lot of thinking, I need to take a break and sometimes even opt out to find a different path to the result. Often, I take extra time to find the path of least resistance. Even when I get somewhere, I take the route with the fewest traffic lights and the most lanes . Choosing those directions needs a moment of reflection, and the more we practice and drive the same roads, the less time our decision-making will take, and we experience more ease and hopefully have more bandwidth for fun.

Here are some ways we can explore each and also discover how they can add natural flow in the long run.

Simplicity

It's the first step I take, and it might be the most challenging, depending on how we move through the world. Simplicity isn't easy. It starts with how we look at the world. Our brain is wired to protect us, which is a complex undertaking because what used to be considered dangerous is, in today's world, not at all.

So we first have to explore our tendencies and understand whether there is an aspect I am making more complicated than it needs to be. Take a conveyor belt, for example. It is continuously moving, just like life. So I can ask myself, how can my life and day be simplified if I view it as an ongoing flow and all I have to do is figure out each part of the day/life and put it in order so I don't have to stop and go back, but to stay in a natural flow mostly.

Presence

This aspect helps us not overwhelm ourselves with what the future holds. Yes, have a plan, know what the next steps are on your conveyor belt, and then be present with each action you take. This will help you keep moving while enjoying the moment, even if you don't like it. Because when we are present, our mind has less space for judgment and comparison of good and bad, and work still gets done.

Ease

This is the result of simplicity and presence. Our body and mind will experience a state of ease. A sense of life moving at a speed I can be with, and still feel I am accomplishing my responsibilities and obligations, even if not as quickly as we anticipated.

Fun

This part is probably the highlight of it all, because when everything has its place, when we have a routine that moves with us. And we are steadily moving forward, like a conveyor belt in life; we will find space and time to have fun, especially with what life has to offer, including meeting that deadline or attending a meeting, because life is more than paying our bills. It's about having fun while doing it. We all need to pay our bills; why not have fun with each other while doing the work?

How can your life be more unconditionally, naturally effortless? How it pans out is by

Finding the natural flow with the least resistance.