Pressure and ease

(Originally published 26 August 2011) 

My huddle today was "Let go of pressure & choose to live with ease!" I started using an affirmation "I let go of pressure & choose to live with ease" after leaving the ophthalmologist's office and learning I'll need a laser procedure to deal with elevated pressure in one eye. It got me thinking about how I may be putting pressure on myself.

I realize some people might think such ideas are antithetical to fitness or an invitation to sloth. But I do not equate ease with laziness. I like to challenge myself, and I like following my slow, but steady progress in weight loss. I don't mind the plateaus; I keep doing what I know is good for me, keep using my affirmations, and I've lost an unglamorous—yet cumulatively thrilling—4 pounds per month for most of a year.

Yet while I'm pretty good about accepting my imperfect, though improving eating and exercise, I can still get frustrated and angry with myself for my lack of steady progress on the decluttering front or in terms of my finances. I often think "I'm intelligent—I should be better at this!"

And it is that very act of "shoulding" on myself that creates the internal pressure to be better, to be different. And it's a slippery slope from there to "I'll approve of myself/accept myself/love myself WHEN . . ." My Goddess doesn't withhold Her love because I'm not thin enough, rich enough, or organized enough—so why should I?

I want to love myself enough to nourish my body with healthy foods in moderation, to strengthen my body with balanced exercise, to educate myself to become more financially aware and responsible, to develop more orderly habits and routines. The path to such self-improvement and increased well-being is not going to result from beating myself up, berating my lack of success, criticizing every mistake or putting pressure on myself to be perfect right now!

Rather, I want to choose to do something new or little bit differently, take those babysteps as I learn new skills and build new habits—all for the joy of creating an easier and more pleasurable life blessed with better physical and financial health, greater order, more beauty and flow. That's what I mean when I say I want to live with ease.

What about you?


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