Ever felt shame for taking “the easy way out”? Maybe the shamer was even… you?

We’re culturally obsessed with struggle. Especially in the movement and “fitness” world. There is a difference between building resilience or capacity, and a punitive obsession with challenge for the sake of “conquering the obstacle” or “mastering the body” or whatever YouTube bros are saying. Assigning over inflated importance to doing things the hard way is another way culture creates a hierarchy of value. Some people get to be “good” in this hierarchy, and some of us are therefore bad. Why would our culture want us to be ranked in a hierarchy of good and bad, hmmm? Could it be so that we are always tired and discouraged and demoralized and seeking fulfillment outside of ourselves because we think of ourselves as bad? Could it be that the people who are “good,” who are always pushing pushing pushing, aren’t all that satisfied either?

There is nothing morally better about taking the stairs over the escalator. There is nothing morally wrong in choosing to make life a little more enjoyable, a little more ease-ful. Look at nature - how water follows paths already carved in stone. With time, the energy of the water overflows and starts to branch out, explore, make new paths. That’s the balance of ease and expansion. When your energy is just a trickle, why wouldn’t you take the path of lease resistance? When you’re bursting with energy, that is the time to expand and grow.

We are celebrating ease in the studio. We’re all catching our breath from a busy summer, spending a little more time on the floor in luxurious big stretches. The season is changing - dropping leaves, growing colder, moving inwards. Don’t fight the seasonal changes within yourself! Accept ease, take rest. Trust that your energy will overflow again with time.