There is one secret to living Life without strain, and that is, once and for all, to not make a big deal out of living Life. It is, after all, only Life. It is you who looks at Life the way you do. It is you who makes demands of Life, as if Life is meant to serve you and not you to serve Life.
It’s like Life consists of three flights of stairs to climb to get to your apartment, and every day, you say to yourself:
“What a crumby Life. Three flights of steep stairs to climb. Life isn’t supposed to be like this. How many times a day am I expected to climb up and down these stairs, day in and day out? Life isn’t supposed to ask this much of me. Life is supposed to wait on me more. I’m not even meant to have any stairs to climb. Life is meant to serve me bon-bons. As it is, Life wears me out. Life goes out of its way to hassle me.”
Contrast the above with thoughts like these below:
“Up these stairs again! Wow, look at all this free exercise I get! Yippee! I am so fortunate. God is very good to me! I can move my legs. I can get up from my chair. I can go upstairs and downstairs. I can carry groceries up these stairs, and I can take trash down these stairs. I can dance. I can sing. I am one of the luckiest people in the world! I give gratitude for all the gifts God gives me.”
In the first version, you are a mighty Queen of the May who whines. What fatigue do you bring on? Where are you coming from, and what do you reap?
In the second version of thoughts above, you are a good-natured Princess of Life. By night, you look up at the Moon. You whirl the Stars. By day, you dance to the Beat of the Sun on Blue Sky. Life is good. Your Life is good. Sometimes there are wind-storms, yet what is the significance of storms next to the Stars, Moon, and Sun and the Love God pours out to you? Choose Heart-raising thoughts.
Cast out thoughts that wear you down. Erase the words that say you are meant for suffering. Balderdash. It is an ancient idea that says you are born to suffer.
Do you really think I got up one morning and decided to create a world of suffering? Suffering is made from habits of thinking. Peace is also wrought from habits of thinking. Think of response before old-fashioned reaction.
Get over the idea that Life is made of suffering. Who names it suffering? Name your own Life.
How you look at Life makes all the difference in the world.
Where did you learn to look at Life the way you do? You picked it up somewhere and held on tight to the ideas stored in your heart. All you have to do is to change your view. Perhaps you see suffering as an emblem of your worthiness. Such an emblem doesn’t hold up. What is this perceived need to keep suffering to you? What does that idea do for you, and what possible joy does it pound into oblivion?
Perhaps you ask for mercy. Have mercy on yourself. Even if the whole world cries out in pain, you are not obliged to. Set yourself free. Give yourself a break. No longer buy into the suffering idea. You don’t have to own it. Serve the Universe, and you serve yourself.
For instance, you may have carried pain with you your whole life long. There is nothing to say that today you have to keep pain close to you. Suffering does not serve you. Being a long-suffering martyr does not serve you. Getting out from under suffering serves you and the whole wide world.