easy does it

I was reminded of something earlier today in a yoga class. Something I've been trying to focus on this year, and something I'd like to incorporate more into my life. Or better yet, something I'd like to stop resisting. The idea of ease verses struggle.

As a somatic bodyworker, I help people rediscover natural movement. And the interesting thing abut natural movement is that it is smooth, it is graceful, it is efficient and it is most definitely easy. It's easy because this is what we were created to do, biologically we are structured for efficient easy movements. You don't have to teach a child to walk, just as you don't have to teach a bird to fly, the anatomical structure of our muscular-skeletal system dictates certain free easy movements and through a process of development and discovery we stumble on them as we age. But they are not taught. What is taught to us is resistance to natural movements. Postures, stances and positions that are learned from teachers, parents, and occupations to force our bodies away from what they do naturally. And in a simple way it is this resistance of natural movement that is at the route of many medical problems we are facing right now.

So when a client comes in and I show them movements that restore what our bodies do naturally, I get comments like "that's it?" "it's simple", "I feel like I'm not doing anything" or "that feels so counter-intuitive to what I've been doing" usually followed by "but that feels really good". Yes it is simple, I'm often amazed how easy it be to get someone out of pain once they stop resisting the natural mechanics of the soma.

So, I'd like to propose a question to whoever is listening out there. I have my own ideas that I can say later, but I'm sure you have some wonderful thoughts as well. Why do things need to be complicated? What is the purpose of struggle and what happens if things are just.... easy.