No More Trying : I quit that job

I am tired of trying.  The other day while exercising I realized there is a great difference between trying to do a specific movement and just bringing my full attention to it.  In fact, trying feels like it is in a whole other realm - The Realm of Futile  Effort.

Though trying can refer to giving something a go as in "Try it!", it is often lived as "Try harder!".  And this, mostly self-inflicted directive, is all about mental straining - extraneous thinking  that only serves to deplete our energy.

When I work out and bring my full attention to what my body is doing, without assessment or judgment, I feel good.  When I try hard, I am thinking in overdrive and I feel uncomfortable.  This applies to everything I do.  It's even applicable when all I'm doing is thinking; I can allow my thoughts to flow or I can overwork them - also known as worrying.

Life coach and writer Michael Neill has an insightful way of talking about this kind of trying; he says it indicates we're attempting to do something that is "not our job".  We don't HAVE to think about things that have no real point, over which we have no control, or in ways that spin us out.  Those taxing, repetitive thoughts easily come to feel like a full time job.  And that's not the job any of us are here to do.  

Lots of love,
Jen