A Beautiful Ripple Effect

Note for new readers: Throughout December, I will be posting my personal responses to Reverb11. My posts will be a bit different than usual—more vulnerable, less polished, more frequent, and probably more interesting! However, you can expect some “special” posts  during the month as well. If you’re interested in reading more typical content, check out a few of the most popular posts. Regardless of what you’re reading (or not reading), welcome and happy December!

6. Ease. What can you do to add ease to 2012?

First, to shift myself into the “ease” mentality, I turned to dictionary.com for some ways to think of “ease.”  Below are a few of the definitions I found.

1. to free from anxiety or care
2. to mitigate, lighten, or lessen
3. to release from pressure, tension, or the like
4. to move or shift with great care
5. to render less difficult; facilitate

Feeling more tranquil after just reading the above descriptions, I realized how important it is for me to really prioritize ease this coming year.

Next, I opened my journal to a blank page and wrote the word ease along the top. On this page, my goal was to release any automatic and unfiltered thoughts associated with ease. Essentially, this is a brain dump of everything and anything that floats into the mind related to thoughts of ease.

Then, I looked at particular ways I could add ease in the coming year. To focus on particular ways, I asked myself a few questions.

What feels difficult?
What would make this feel less difficult?

What do I enjoy doing?
How could I make it easier to do more of what I enjoy doing?

In order to add ease to 2012, I need to check in with myself on a regular basis. By doing regular check-ins, I could practice making tiny changes (less daunting, more doable) and see what works and what doesn’t work to make the difficult stuff less difficult and the good stuff more enjoyable.

I will begin this practice by:

1. Scheduling a few minutes at the end of each week to focus on the topic of ease.
2. Using the questions above as journal prompts for this weekly exercise and revising the questions as needed.
3. Ending this weekly exercise with a focused action that I can use to add more ease to the upcoming week.

What can you do to add ease to 2012?

image: iro ivy

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