3-14-18
Breathe In.
Breathe Out.
These two simple actions are the basis for supporting life.
When our body takes in oxygen, it sparks a chain reaction of complex functions that help keep us mobile and functioning. We don’t think about those complex functions, and we don’t even think about the act of breathing most of the time. We just do it. Unconsciously. And it sustains us.
But therein lies the rub: simple is not easy. And when we fight the natural, unconscious instinct to breathe, it becomes difficult.
This basic truth of physiology can serve as a metaphor for life.
Life is not meant to be EASY, but it can be SIMPLE.
“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton
We need to be conscious of our basic needs, but we need to allow them to be met without forcing them. Like the action of the tides interacts with the life beneath the water, we need to let ourselves be taken with the natural forces to make our way to where we need to be. And sometimes that is not the direction that we thought. We might find ourselves tossed onto the shore, instead of deeper in fertile fishing grounds.
But challenge is necessary for evolution. That doesn't mean we can't be happy or satisfied, even as we face our daily challenges. We need to embrace growth and change and commit ourselves to making the most of ourselves and our situation every single day. And we do this by allowing our bodies to do what they need to do. #noexcuses We also often get frustrated because we cannot overcome our #challenges fast enough or because we experience setbacks. This is natural, and part of the simplicity of growth.
As Ezra Bayda says in The Authentic Life: Zen Wisdom for Living Free From Complacency and Fear, “Remember, we get stuck because we’ve lost touch with a bigger sense of things. We forget that our stuck place is not an obstacle but rather our exact path to freedom. Yet this is only true if we’re willing to bring awareness to it.” We can do this through breath. When we breathe fully with the body we reconnect not only with ourselves but with the rhythms and forces of nature that surround us – the very rhythms that often get overshadowed by our daily hustle and bustle.
That doesn't mean you can't stop to rest and regenerate periodically, or that you can't take care of yourself when you need self-care, but it does mean that you need to be ever vigilant to taking the easy way out or finding ways to avoid #doingallthethings. Ultimately, we are responsible for our own growth as part of the greater community.
One of the deepest lessons I have learned through the movement classes I have been taking is that slow, deep, core work – sometimes that doesn’t even look like the body is moving or working – is the hardest, most important work one can do. It is simple and essential, but it is certainly not easy.
“Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple.” -- Jonathan Ive
When it comes to defining ourselves and making the most of who we are meant to be, we need to slow down, focus, and do the hard work of finding simplicity. Complexity is a mask that distorts and disguises our true selves not only to the world but to ourselves as well.
As Lao Tzu wrote, “Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” This doesn’t mean that we can’t experience growth and improvement – we can constantly strive to be better than we are – but it does mean that we can stop berating ourselves for not being perfect and focus on the simplicity of being and letting the body and soul do its complex work without resistance.
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