Simplicity

If there were a place with a library full of instructions for your life, you probably wouldn’t dare to go there. You’d find a bunch of reasons why you’re not able to visit that place and read what that library holds. But because you know it doesn’t exist, you crave it in some hidden way, thinking you’d be better off with it because you’d have a “signpost”. But if you were to discover such a place, you’d simply go into fear; you wouldn’t dare read what is in it for fear of being disappointed.
Life is simple until the moment you complicate it. That’s a challenge for you, and in a way, that’s a good thing. The challenges you create for yourself help you stumble and rise and push yourself forward, learning new things along the way.
But there are two different types of challenge: those which are “meaningful” and those which are “pointless”. Imagine a life full of meaningful challenges. It would be like a lively amusement park, full of strange machines that generate delight, adrenaline, and a certain dose of fear in you. Most people leave that amusement park with a smile on their face, most think they’ll come back again.
That’s what a life full of “meaningful” challenges looks like. And a life full of “pointless” challenges is an attack on you and everything that you are, an attack by you on yourself. It’s a form of abuse you’d immediately resent someone for if they were to inflict it on you, but you don’t even acknowledge it when you do it to yourself, or even worse, you don’t even realize it.
It’s in those moments when, out of a sort of anger towards your life and yourself, you try to complicate things to the point where they become virtually unbearable. And then you suffer.
You place yourself in a circle of suffering and expect the whole universe to support you in that. Under the guise of a new lesson to learn, you walk your path in life carrying a burden nobody has asked you to carry, carrying a burden which is entirely pointless to everybody, and most of all to yourself, pointless and unnecessary.
That’s because lessons come when you’re ready for them and they can come in various shapes—difficult ones, less difficult ones, and ones which are light and happy.
Life is simple. Think about that sentence and everything that’s implied by it. Think about yourself and your life and everything it contains. Try to make a list of all the things in it which are simple. When you start to make a list, you’ll see that there are enough simple things, surprisingly so. And then focus on them, try to see what those simple things are made up of, what makes them so simple.
Then take that “formula” you discover in your simple things and apply it to those things which are a little less simple. With time, as you move into that “code of simplicity”, everything around you will take on a different meaning. When you begin experiencing things differently, they’ll become different. And the new things which are yet to enter your life will immediately receive the “label” of simplicity, by the very virtue of your recognizing them and attracting them.
Try. Surrender to simplicity and live. And as you do, try to bring into your life some simple exercises which will help your life’s rhythm to take on the “simplicity” you deserve.

Exist / breathe / feel / speak:

   - Exist – Imagine that you’re a flower in a field and that you exist, that’s your only task.
And now carry that task out every day, for at least half an hour. Sit or lie down and just exist. The only thing you need to do is think about you and your existence. Be aware of your body, of every outer and inner region, go through all your parts, greet them, and exist.

    - Breathe – Try to be maximally aware of your breathing throughout the day. It’s here, whether you think about it or not. But if you become aware of it, you’ll become aware of your life in this body because without breathing, this body wouldn’t function.
Breathing, in a way, connects you with this body. So, throughout the day, in various situations, think about your breathing, be your breathing.

    - Feel – Feel yourself, your emotions, your thoughts. Throughout the day, in various situations, just feel yourself. Regardless of what state you’re in, feel that state. Hold still in the moment, as if you were to press the pause button on a movie, and feel yourself in that scene, feel everything that you are.
That way, you’ll better understand what you are and shed light on why you’re doing what you’re doing.

    - Speak – At least once a day, tell yourself the truth in silence. The truth about anything, find a topic and tell yourself the truth about it. Don’t stop presenting the truth until you’ve stated even your slightest thought on the matter. You can do it in writing or out loud, in front of the mirror or in front of a tree. All that matters is that you say everything, absolutely everything on the matter—the truth and nothing else.