Are You Working Too Hard?

“Let go of the idea that life is hard work and see that it is soft. You are just surrendering and allowing.”
-Red Feather
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Why is it that life often just feels like hard work? Why do we make it so? Does life have to be hard work?

We can be grateful for our hard work because it goes hand in hand with a sense of accomplishment. It is that for which we strive not the hard work itself. It is so that we can look back and say, “This is what I did.” It feels good, and in the process we learn valuable spiritual lessons. There is purpose in this path.

It is not the only path however. For it is possible to grow through play. How else do children learn so well and so easily? It is only when learning becomes hard work for them that they bog down and struggle, just like adults.

What’s the difference? The difference is that sense of ‘have to’, ‘should’, ‘must’. The difference is the element of fear around whatever it is not getting done. “If I don’t do this, I won’t get paid. If I don’t do this, I won’t be able to pay my bills. If I don’t do this my house won’t be clean and what will my guests think? If I don’t do this, I’m not a good parent, employee, person.”

There are so many ways that fear can enter into why we choose to do or not do. Yet fear creates that sense of struggle and hard work. In contrast, anything done from love, with love, becomes ease and flow. Either way we learn, we grow. It is just a matter of choosing how we want to go about it.

But how will we ever get anything done if we just do what we want?

The truth is that we do what we want anyway. We just like to complain about it, to ourselves and to others. We want to clean the house because we want to feel good, or we want others to think well of us, or whatever other reason we have. We want to work to pay our bills, because we want to get paid, we want to live in our homes, we want to eat and buy things. We are doing what we want. It just feels like hard work.

Now what would it look like if we flipped the switch, like changing the voltage of our electrical current from 110 to 220? What would it look like if we raised our vibration enough so that we do what we do guided by thoughts of love and appreciation?

Then it would look like this, “I really appreciate this ability I have to earn a living.” “I'm glad I have this vacuum cleaner that makes cleaning the mess on my floor easier.” “I am grateful for the people I love in my life.”  “I so appreciate the blue sky, the wind, the sun on my face.”

The more we can do this, finding something to appreciate about whatever we are doing, whatever circumstances we find ourselves involved in, the more and more we will have to appreciate in our lives. Circumstances around us will change and become more and more pleasing.

Even finding the littlest things to appreciate matters and makes the difference because it is the attitude of appreciation, that love expressed, that will make the difference. We become motivated by love rather than fear. We are expressing love rather than fear into our lives. The Universe will respond by reflecting that love back to us, in small ways and in large. Life will no longer feel like such hard work. A life filled with an attitude of appreciation is a life filled with grace and with flow. 

Your Spiritual Toolbox

Just for today, surrender your ideas about what you think you’d rather have or rather be doing.

Let go of your ideas of how hard you are working. The work will still be there, but for today, you can let go of the thought of struggle, discomfort and complaint.

​Now allow yourself to find something to appreciate about what life has brought you in this moment.

If you find your thoughts returning to struggle, discomfort and complaints in the next moment, find something else to appreciate.  
Don’t try to change anything else. Just let go of what you think you’d prefer and appreciate something about what is.

It doesn’t matter what it is that you find to appreciate. “I’m grateful for this job that pays my bills.” “I appreciate these clothes that keep me warm.” “I’m glad for this comfortable chair so I don’t have to stand all day.” “I’m grateful for the blue sky I see out the window.”   It can be anything at all.

What is important is the feeling of appreciation itself. Keep this up until you feel appreciation as well as think it.
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Feeling is the language of the subconscious, and it is the subconscious that will communicate these new directives of appreciation through your superconscious and out into the Universe.  When it does, the Universe can reflect back to you more and more and more to appreciate. 

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash
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