I recently had a wonderful conversation with my dear friend, Sherri Cortland, author of Raising Our Vibrations. We were talking about one of my favorite topics…living with ease and effortlessness. Both of us were born in New York, and we share that ‘gotta get it done right now’ mentality. I love my connection to Sherri…although we have yet to meet each other in person, each time we get together on the phone I feel so inspired. Sherri contacted me the week after our call and told me that she’d love to hear more about my ideas about ease and effortlessness so that she could share that with her wonderful readers. What follows is my response to her request.
Sherri, I am thrilled and honored to share what I’ve learned, and I have four important steps to share with you and your readers. But let’s begin with our phone call. We had such a great, high energy conversation filled with soul, joy, and laughter-- the perfect ingredients to create through ease and effortlessness. You could say we were in the flow… of life itself. Those four little words, ‘going with the flow,’ are the essence of living a life that’s infused with ease and effortlessness.
Yes, I completely agree that it’s essential that we cultivate awareness to live with less drama, less pain, and not get stuck in suffering. However, awareness can’t be rushed or forced. It’s more of an ‘allowing’ state. I love the principle from A Course in Miracles that ‘infinite patience produces immediate results.’ Let’s break this down, okay? The cluttered mind thrives on drama and fear. So, it has a sneaky, seductive way of overtaking us, pulling us down into its clutches, and convincing us that we need to kick down those doors in order to access opportunities. This is the exact opposite of using our energy efficiently, living in the spirit of ease and effortlessness.
Clarity through contrast moment…I will never forget watching Oprah interview Sir Richard Branson, the English business magnate, who is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group of more than 400 companies worldwide. Oprah asked him if her crew could film his office, when they were touring his amazing residence. Richard pointed to his hammock… explaining that he does most of his work there because he runs his companies in the hammock, using his cell phone to allow access to all of his companies around the world. How’s that for an image of ease and effortlessness? That image has been indelibly etched on my mind. My friend Adrianna and I often ask each other, ‘Are you getting enough hammock time?’
So, we need to practice mastering the cluttered mind, the conditioned part of us that readily obscures our Spiritual power – if we let it. That’s the key. Mental clutter obscures our true nature. We are a part of nature, and like nature itself, our true nature functions in perfect harmony, balance, efficiency and total ease. That’s precisely how we can spot our windows of opportunity… quickly and efficiently, through playfulness and joy – not through force!
Everything that manifests starts with the intentions we set. At the start of this year, my intention was to deepen my practice of living in faith and ease. I felt called to go within and connect with my Divine inner spark. So that’s what I did. Through honoring that guidance, I practiced getting quiet, drawing from sources of high frequency energy and wisdom as well as relinquishing my need to look for my power outside myself. I stopped fighting life and instead focused on accepting and appreciating my life as it was unfolding. I made myself available to the universe, to move through me for the highest good. I practiced releasing my attachment to how and when that would show up.
As the year draws to a close, I am thrilled to share that among the many benefits of living this way, I have felt more peaceful than ever, more gratitude for my life, more love in my heart to share with others and here’s the added bonus – my practice has been on fire! So are you ready to create your life using the least amount of energy to produce the greatest success? Check out these supercharged steps for living with more ease, less stress. These are steps that I live and thrive by, and love to teach others how to best implement in their lives.
1.Declutter your mind. Our roaring cluttered mind (some call it the voice that never shuts up) seduces us into believing that life inevitably must be hard and that we are all alone…separate from our Source, separate from each other, separate from nature. Again, when we are at its mercy, no wonder we feel the need to push our way through life! Learning how to declutter your mind is essential to living a life of ease and joy. Remember, the clutter in your mind is highly adept at blocking out the ease and joy that your oh-so-soft-speaking Spirit is always guiding you to claim for yourself. As one of my beloved spiritual teachers, Hans Christian King says, ‘You need to get out of the doorway.’ Opportunities are always trying to come to us which we block when we’re ruled by the cluttered mind.
2.As Joseph Campbell said, ‘Follow your bliss.’ Engage in that which connects you with the state known as bliss. That means everything from the people you spend time with, the books you read, exercise you choose – all of it. Discover what allows your passion to soar and make time for it. That’s how we plug into high frequency energy. As much as possible, declutter all the rest.
3.Be still and know. Spend time in stillness. Expand your vision of how to do this the easy way! That means in a way that brings you bliss. My practice is briskly walking at the Berkeley Marina, sometimes tuning into the breathtaking beauty of the sights and sounds that surround me…the spectacular views, the sound of the waves, seagulls flying, etc…sometimes listening to inspirational music. Whatever floats your boat.
4.Breathe, relax and know all is well. Choose this as your sacred intention. Affirm this throughout the day. You are redesigning your mind as you do. The infinite wisdom of the universe that keeps the cosmos in complete order, elegantly and efficiently, also keeps you in Divine order. Just as you don’t need to worry about your heart beating and your lungs breathing, you actually don’t need to worry about anything. Worry is a completely different energy than ease. Know that everything is unfolding according to a higher plan. That allows you to live effortlessly in peace and create the opportunity for your Spirit to soar!
Thank you, Sherri for inviting me to focus on the diamonds that I’ve culled about this juicy, fascinating topic. Through awareness, we can choose what we focus upon. And what we focus upon expands. Here’s to creating success, hammock style!
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