Effortless Bliss: Where Mindfulness & Life Goals meet.

Effortless

"The best meditation is effortless. It is gentle awareness."

When you first start learning how to ride a bicycle, it is very difficult to maintain the balance for even a few seconds. Seems almost impossible? It takes great attention to detail, focus, a lot of mental and physical effort and many failed attempts to finally learn the skill. And once you get it, it becomes easy- almost effortless. In reality, you still have to constantly pedal to keep the cycle going- but it seems much simpler now. Over time, you don’t even realise that you are putting in any effort at all- it becomes second nature.

Similarly, Mindfulness is a skill that can be learnt. It might seem difficult in the beginning. But over time, it becomes effortless and you are able to maintain balance without much difficulty. Even if you miss out for a while, you can pick up right where you left off. 

Bliss

"Happiness is a feeling. Bliss is a state of mind."

Feelings are essential signals, internal reflections of external circumstances which are beyond your control. But what is always in your control? Your own state of mind- how you handle feelings, navigate circumstances, talk to yourself and to others, etc. Feelings are temporary. But the skills you master as you practice mindfulness stay with you and help you across various areas of your life- work, relationships, etc. You learn how  to stay calm  and deal with both- pleasant and unpleasant feelings smoothly.

Mindfulness changes how you process and respond to situations-  with acceptance, awareness and equanimity- instead of always reacting and functioning on auto-pilot. This cultivates a sense of ease and bliss, when things go your way and even when they don’t.

Mindfulness x Life Goals

Mindfulness asks us to slow down, observe, go deeper inside and contemplate. But we have learnt that to achieve material goals, we need to hustle hard, keep going, never quit, take risks and blindly follow our passion. Sound like opposites?

However, both these can co-exist- what is needed is to strike a healthy balance. We do not need to give up all material desires and possessions to become more mindful. And we do not need to give up our peace of mind in the pursuit of our goals.

We need to balance action with non-action, inner-work with its external manifestation, reframing thoughts with change in behaviour, compassion with boundaries, flow with structure. We need to take the middle path instead of choosing extremes.