Sunday, November 24, 2013

Effortless Inspired Action

"When we force an action in hopes of creating an outcome we desire, we can actually block ourselves from magnificent possibilities." - Oprah 

This idea helped me this week in an area I have struggled with for years. I took a moment and acknowledged the struggle I was having and became willing to let go of the struggle. That in itself was a challenge. I noticed I was holding on to the struggle. I was using it as insurance against a very old fear. It went like this in my mind, "If I hold on to this struggle, at least I can prove that I am trying, that I've done all I can." When I became willing to let go of the struggle I was almost immediately inspired with another option. I felt inner peace. For me, that is priceless.

"If an action is born and inspired from the Truth of you, from within, it's coming from an essential and Divine place, supported by the energy that helps us effortlessly move towards our Destiny. When we force an action in hopes of creating an outcome we desire, we can actually block ourselves from magnificent possibilities." - Oprah 

In the past the reference to "effortless" was so out of my ability to comprehend that I threw out this entire concept all together. I was taught and bought the idea that effort is what it's all about.  I was so indoctrinated in this belief that I thought without proof of effort there was no possibility for peace.  I would ask, "How can it possibly be effortless?", and with that thought shut out the possibility completely. Now I understand that effortlessness comes from becoming totally present, sensing inspiration and taking action from that place.  In the past I spent so much time in my head arguing that any action even inspired action is not effortless (action takes effort) that I missed the opportunity to experience the ease with which it unfolds.   

Recognizing that what I was thinking and doing had become so habitual it was unconscious, I became really honest with myself which helped me to shift my thinking just enough to surrender.  Suddenly, I was able to allow inspired action to unfold and the first inspired action was inaction.  Inspired action, especially inspired inaction, had been scary to me in the past because although I believed in it, I had a longer history of forcing action, and had been "rewarded" with "approval" from those around me especially authority figures.  The outcome of inspired action was immediately and continues to be inner peace.  For me, this inner peace has gratefully proven itself to be a greater desire than what I had previously feared.