Making life – and success – easy

We all like things to be easy. We enjoy doing something, or experiencing something, that seems simple and uncomplicated to us. If we find something easy we tend to be ‘good’ at it and then we feel successful. Things that are easy seem to ‘go well.’ At Damsels in Success, a women’s networking and support group that I belong to, we talk about Success with Ease. Isn’t that what we all want? Achieving our goals and intentions smoothly and happily?

One of the difficulties is that we often devalue the things we find easiest to do. We might find something so easy that it is like falling off a log and we – wrongly – assume that it is just as easy for others and therefore don’t see the value in offering this skill as a service. In fact, very often we find something easy because we are uniquely talented at it. When we approach this activity we are in our ‘zone of genius’ and everything flows. For you, it may be drawing, or communicating, or working with spreadsheets. For others, baking, running or organising events are easy and fun.

Personally, I have been able better to understand the concept of ease since I realised it is intrinsically bound up with love. Just think of something that you have found easy that, objectively, should not have been easy. Getting up in the night for the fifth time to your colicky baby. Communicating assertively with your child’s teacher about something that went wrong at school. Creating a complex piece of artwork. Organising an event all by yourself. Nursing an elderly relative. All of these tasks could be challenging, but the chances are that, if you found your challenge easy, you were doing it with love. Love for your baby, your child, your art, your project, your parent or grandparent.

I work in the criminal justice system and sometimes have to go out in the middle of the night to a police station to advise someone who might be frightened, angry or confused. Many of my clients have mental health issues, learning difficulties, addictions or were brought up in the care system. Some of them are not happy to see me, especially if I can’t ‘get them out.’ But most of the time I find this work easy. Quite obviously, the work itself is not always easy and neither are the circumstances in which it is carried out. What makes it easy for me is that I love the job, the human contact, the contribution, the challenge. I love what I do and I expect it to be easy. So it is.

This experience has taught me that anything I approach with love, with an open heart, is likely to seem easy. Even if there are obstacles, I will feel as if I sail through them or adapt graciously. And the wonderful thing about this is that an open heart is easily achieved, a lot of the time. There are many routes to opening up to love, often focussing on our chest area, including yoga, meditation, prayer and conscious breathing. If I remember to open my heart, I will feel full of love.

And if I am full of love I will approach whatever I am doing with love. I don’t need to feel love for the task, project or challenge that I am facing. I just need to have an open heart full of love, to be love, and then I will bring ease with me throughout my day.

Does this sound a bit simple, a bit too good to be true? That is because it is simple! And for those of us who love to complicate life, simple things are hard to remember, hard to believe in and hard to make ourselves try. Not hard in themselves, but made hard by our mischievous complicating minds.

Just try it; I dare you. If you know how to focus on your heart space, do it and take that lovely loving generous feeling with you on your next challenge. Even if that challenge is cleaning out the cupboard under the sink. And if you’re not sure how to open up in this way, investigate. Find a yoga teacher you feel comfortable with, learn to meditate or keep going until you find the practice that is right for you.

And please, let me know what happens. What if we could all bring much, much more ease into our lives just by approaching things with love? By being love as we do, well, whatever we do? It could be more than just life-changing; it could be world-changing. So try this and tell me what happens. Love and ease. Simple!