Week 4 of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is the Law of Least Effort.
It never fails to make me laugh when the Universe presents me with moments of understanding by plopping me right in the middle of the lesson I need to learn. Take yesterday, for example.
Monday is usually the day that I write and post my blog. I like to do this on Mondays because it sets the tone for my week and, hopefully, fires me up to work on some other creative projects. I try not to break this deadline that I have set up for myself because I can also be the Queen of Procrastination if I try (and most times I don't need to try very hard). However, yesterday they were calling for some bad weather that was headed our way and I decided that getting to the store and stocking up on things I needed should probably move up my to-do list for the day. I could always get the blog written and posted when I got back. However, the heater in my daughter's car had other plans. After hitting a few stores in 16 degree weather with my youngest grandchildren in the back seat (ages 6 and 9), the car heater, which had been giving her some problems, decided to start blowing cold air. So we had to cut our shopping trip short and proceed to the mechanic's shop to see if they could remedy the problem. We did not want to chance anything else going wrong with all of us in the car when it was an hour plus round trip for them to drop me back home where I lived. Besides, by that time we had blankets on our laps and our ear muffs on in the car!
Luckily the problem only took about 40 minutes to fix and we all got home safe and sound if a bit chilled from the experience. I was in no mood to sit down and write a blog. I wanted a hot bowl of soup and a hot cup of tea. In previous times if something came along that ruined my self-imposed deadline, I would fume and fuss. This time I told myself that the world would not come to an end if I posted on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday, that my ever-faithful readers would understand, and that my entire writing career had not just been dashed to pieces by a faulty car heater. So imagine my laughter when I opened the book we are studying here and saw that the lesson for this week was The Law of Least Effort.
The Law of Least Effort tells us that when we push, and shove, and try to force our desires into manifesting, it ends up being a much harder process than it needs to be and often does not work at all. We are told to take a look at the natural world for our answers. Grass doesn't try to grow, it just grows. Birds don't try to fly, they just fly. Fish don't try to swim, they just swim. When we marry the natural intelligence of nature with harmony, joy and love, we find that we can create with effortless ease. Here are three ways to put this law into practice:
1. Acceptance - We can stop fighting against people and situations as they are. They already exist. The Universe already exists as it is and you can't do anything to change it. Accept things as they are in the moment and stop struggling with how you wish they were.
2. Having accepted the person or situation as it is, we can now take responsibility for how we choose to act or react. It is usually the case that it is not the person or situation that is the problem, but how we perceive and respond to it or them. We can decide how we want the moment to play out by the choice we make right here, right now.
3.We can also set the intention to establish our awareness in defenselessness. That means that we do not need to insist that our way or our point of view is the only right one, and that we can easily remain open to the ideas and opinions of others without the need to change them. By not being rigidly attached to any one idea or concept, we are free to effortlessly create how we want this moment, this day and this life, to flow and perhaps, in so doing, we may find a new and even better idea that works for us.
When we can set the intention to accept each moment as it is, take responsibility to how we respond to it, and remain open to the flow of ideas and concepts that are all around us, when the season is right, we will find that manifesting our desires is as effortless as we allow it to be.
And so it is.
