Balancing Effort, Sweet Effort - Excerpt from January 2011 Newsletter

Happy New Year dear friends. I hope this finds you well, energized by the freshness of the rain and the wide-openness of the year to come. I want to share something that's been on my mind these past few weeks and hope it will find a cozy spot in your attention, if only for this moment.

I was given such an amazing gift to start my year, one that seems to be resonating across many areas of my life connecting one to another with unexpected insights and small, powerful revelations. During a wonderful four hours with yogic and Sanskrit philosopher, Christopher Wallace, these words made their way home to my head and my heart: "Sweet effort."

We often talk about the balance of effort and ease in our Pilates practice. In fact, we always do. It is at the heart of the awareness we cultivate every time we practice. For me, it resonates in the way of balancing the effort I feel in living my life. No doubt you've been exposed, at some point, to the idea of non-attachment: the ability to let go of your expectations, your grasp on your desire for a certain outcome. Not to be mistaken for detachment, indifference or apathy. How do we apply effort without driving madly for the goal? If there is no interest in the outcome what's to motivate us toward it? These are my questions and where I found "sweet effort" waiting.

Non-attachment is our skillfulness in being present with whatever is happening, presently, without regret for what could have been. This is the sweetness.

In this modern world, I tell myself, in my life, effort reigns: effort to run my business well; effort to teach my son well; to discipline him and myself; to be non judgmental and always kind; to make money and on and on. The more excited I get about the potential of what my life holds the greater the drive - the more I set my sights on getting somewhere. The path seems very, very long and I get impatient. This is when I can feel my effort turn bitter.

However, through the experience of finding ease in my body, even in the most intense and focused moments, I am also familiar with the difference between this kind of straining, stressful effort and being able to set clear goals and intentions that come from a place of willingness and ease. There are times when the goal does not negate the joy in how I get there. This is what Christopher Wallace talked about: we must have the right view, the right starting place and have clear vision, where we want to go. Then there is practice. When practice is motivated by self-love and gentleness and by balance not self-hatred, impatience and agonizing effort there can be progress, even transformation. With sweet effort we reach our goals more directly regardless of if it's exactly how we thought we would.

When you find this place between clarity of path and direction, and a true ability to love just where you are in the moment no matter where it is, that's sweet effort. "Yoga is wanting the life you have," he told us. If yoga is the practice then Pilates can be the occasion for practicing sweet effort.

Buddhist teacher Michael Carroll, writes "Our effort to get somewhere, whether in our career, in our life, or in simply riding a bike, depends on first being somewhere, letting go of our fears, desires, habits, and routines and trusting ourselves fully in the present moment." We must balance the two efforts, writes Carroll.

I have a plan, a goal, an intention and it is strong. When I begin to strive for it, grasp at it, believe that there is nothing else that will do I experience stress and worry and a terrible exertion. It's like when I see you do a roll-up or try a teaser, applying all your effort to achieve the movement as you see others doing it or me doing it. Often, there is just tension and that tension restricts your body, cutting you off from finding the movement with ease. That's me when I become attached to the outcome of my clear plan. That's you, too.

In my Pilates practice, because of it, I rarely struggle with effort. I know, in a felt way, how to balance what I want with what I've got and it feels easy, graceful, perfect for what it is. That is sweet effort. When I can see my goals and know that whether or not I reach them I am just where I need to be, there is the same ease - the balance of efforts.

This is my great lesson in the moment: balancing the efforts - finding sweet effort. When I do find it, there is nothing but joy. The ease in my mind and my spirit is matched by the ease in my body and no matter whether I got everything on my list accomplished or got where I wanted to go, I feel good. I am happy.

So, I hope you can find some sweet effort today and every day. I have said and thought, on many occasions, what we do in the studio reflects the skillfulness we can cultivate in our lives. One can be a mirror of the other. Next time you find your sweet effort in your movement notice the feeling. Perhaps finding it in your life is not so different.

*Thank you to Cori for sharing Christopher with me!*

With warmth and gratitude,
Chantill