“See if you can let it be easy,” my Linklater voice teacher would often say, as she coached my small group of local actors through various exercises to find and free our true speaking voices. We hummed and trilled and stretched, and constantly, as in the rest of life, ran up against obstacles, physical and mental.
“See if you can let it be easy.”
Something about that phrase was powerful. Something in me—my ego, I guess—softened, released its grip every time she said it. So I started to say it to myself. (I don’t know if I have said it to my own students, or if it still lives deeper down, shelved under “Inner Dialogue Only.”) I loved that saying; I love it now. I think many of us, somewhere along the way, bought into the notion that life was supposed to be hard, that anything worth having was bound to involve suffering and struggle. But maybe not. Maybe some things, very much worth having, come only with ease, with release, and relinquishing control…
There is a similar 12 step slogan, “Easy Does It,” but I find much more substance here:
“See if”: a non-aggressive direction if ever there was one. It’s more of an invitation than an instruction. The idea seems to be simply to explore the possibility, to “open to grace” as my yoga friends might say.
“You can”: others can only do so much to help. No one can do this work for you, this inner work of personal growth.
“Let it”: the direction is also non-aggressive, even passive, encouraging you simply to allow—to get out of your own way, as it were.
“Be easy”: maybe things can be easier. Maybe we can’t force it or make it so, maybe we can’t step on the gas pedal, speed up the process. But maybe whatever is hard can be easier, even easy, if we let it.
Maybe the key to ease is to surrender just a bit more. I know for myself, that as I release my tendency to over-effort, over-think, I am able to drop the “my kingdom come, my will be done” attitude that creeps in many times a day. As I relinquish to my Higher Power the outcomes of my actions and the fulfillment of my dreams, things do get easier.
So, give it a shot. See if you can. See if you can let it be easy.
Comments