Navigating Life with Ease – What Simplicity Means from a 3 Principles Perspective

Welcome. This podcast is a series of candid conversations exploring the human experience from a completely new perspective. In it, we will be diving deeply into the meaning of commonly used words and pointing you away from that old, stressful way of looking at life towards a new paradigm. This will help you find a sense of calm, cultivate meaningful relationships, and create harmony in every aspect of your life. Here is Navigating Life With Ease with Michaela Ellis and Claire Downer. Hello.

Hey, Claire.

And Happy New Year. I suppose we can have that still, can't we?

Right. Happy New Year. Till the end of January, I think.

I think you can get away with it that long. I'm very well. How are you?

Good, good, thank you. Yeah.

Yeah.

You got a word for me today?

I have got a word for you. And the word is simplicity.

Simplicity. I do like that. What is it really? What is it really? You know, what comes to mind is I've been spinning my wheels, you know, for a couple of days, and now I've just started shot around planning for simplicity. And in the. In the. Trying to create simplicity in my life, my schedule, my business, it was getting really complicated.

I knew you were gonna say, Still brilliant.

Yeah. What? Yeah, so simplicity. What I've. I've actually known it before and forgot and, you know, known and forgot. I really forgot it these last couple of days in this effort to have things be simple and easy and. Yeah, so simplicity, I see, is like letting go of trying to simplify things. Letting it. Because it'll naturally. If we follow our true nature and the energy that we are when we just follow that, how it's nudging us and. And driving us. It really is. We're being driven. If we just, you know, had our mind take a back seat and allowed the energy of who we are to drive. Life is really simple. It really. It really is. And the more that. Because of course. And I could see it. I could see it. I kept leaving the office because it's like, oh, my gosh. I can see that I'm just allowing my mind to try and. And take control. And if it just. If I just did this and that and the other thing, then that would work and that'd be easy. And it wasn't. There was this. There was this feeling inside which just made it feel really muddy and complicated and hard. And I aborted. And then this morning when I went for a walk, it's like, oh, something kind of clear just sort of dropped in and it's like, just start there. Just start there. So simplicity. What I see is that it's really letting go and just letting. Letting wisdom, you know, lead the way, guide us. And if there's more that we need to put in, there's more that we need to do to prepare or whatever, we'll know it. We'll know it. At the time, what I notice, I'm just going to share this one little bit, what I really became clear about. And this sort of started before Christmas. It's just like it's January 8th right now when we're recording this. So just before Christmas, the last couple of weeks before, I really saw how much time I spend and energy I spend in trying to protect myself. And that is what I kind of saw in the last couple of days. It's like, well, wait a minute. I said I was Gonna, you know, December 21st, my winter solstice. I threw in the fire. Certainty. Like I'm letting go of certainty because it just keeps me on a hamster wheel and it's not helping anything. It's just creating more confusion and complexity. But what I saw, it's like, wow, I think that certainty is going to protect me, protect my energy in some way. And it just created a lot of. A lot of confusion and angst and pressure. No simplicity. So dropping that and yeah, I'm human, so I keep forgetting. Wait. Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm still looking for that, for that. And it's creating more complexity and really there's nothing to protect. I'm actually doing the opposite of what I think. What my. I'm. What is happening is that the opposite is happening of what my mind thinks that it's going to do, that it's going to protect me. It's not.

It's not.

It's actually working against. So simplicity. That's my first. What I see about simplicity and how it's really about following your. Your own true nature guidance that creates a sense and a feeling of simplicity. How about you?

Yeah, because then this. There's a lot less complication than isn't there because you kind of follow what makes sense, what feels good in the moment, and you don't. You don't move when you don't feel good. You know, like, you don't. You're. You sit. You sit with it and you know, and let that. That be. I mean it. I chose it for our podcast today because I, It's. I've kind of chosen it as my word for the day. Word for the year. Sorry, not just the day, let's have it for a whole year. I feel A day is probably a little short. That would make it very simple, wouldn't it? It's just the one day. It's kind of. It's my word for the year. You know that thing about having a word for the year. And I guess it's interesting you, you kind of went for that sort of more spiritual slant and mine's very. Feels. It feels quite practical in terms of trying to make my business very streamlined and very simple and there being kind of one place where people come to work with me. But I guess it's interesting because that's come from. That's come repeatedly. It's been knocking, you know, like a bit of wisdom that just keeps going. I'm still here and you've still not done me. Are you going to do me again? And again and again. And finally it's this creation of this membership space that has been. Yeah, that's been what I've wanted for as a hub of a place where people go to get everything they want to do with me is all in this one place. So it's really, really simple. But I guess, yeah, the sim, the simplest, the simplicity was always was that it was. It's been, it's just been felt right for a really long time. It's felt like the right thing to do and the right thing to. To move with and I've. I've been off doing more complicated things time and time again, you know, to try and. Yeah, to do whatever. I don't know. But yeah, it's been, it has been more complicated. But trusting, yeah, trusting that guidance feels very simple and I think really understanding our, understanding our humanness and how we actually, you know, like you say being you guided mentor, like really understanding ourselves is really, really key to, to living a more simple life. Understanding when we are really guided, when we are not. When we're off, you know, on a, on a not very helpful train of thought or you know, our mind is trying to control things. I love what you said about complexity and was it com. No. What? You said a word beginning with C which I now can't remember. What did you say?

I did mention. Yeah, complexity, making it complex.

Yeah.

Instead of simplifying.

What word did you say that you burnt on the solstice?

Oh, certainty.

Certainty. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, yeah, that that can make everything really complicated, can't it? It's because nothing is. Nothing is certain. And if we're trying, it's that whack a mole game, isn't it? That I'm sure I've mentioned before. Where it's like I'm gonna lean across all the moles and try and hold them all down at the same time. And of course, they're all bobbing up and you can't keep them all down. Doesn't work that way. And. And I think if we're seeking certainty, we. We're definitely gonna be playing that whack a mole game. And it's. It is exhausting. It's exhausting. I've been listening to Michael Singer, one of his books, not one I've listened to before. I'm not going to remember the title of the books. I can never remember the title of anybody's books. But. And. And he. He's. He's talking about how. How we can end up creating so many complicated systems to avoid feeling certain feelings or to pursue other feelings. And he kind of gave this story. He said, imagine you've got a thorn in your arm, quite a big thorn. And every time anybody touches it, you're like. And even when you go for a walk, if you brush against the leaf, this thorn, like, you know, it hurts you. It keeps hurting you. It's cute. And so you develop all these complex systems to stop yourself feeling the pain of the thorn. And. And you make it really, really complicated rather than, you know. And you can end up just. The story goes on and on and on about all the complicated systems this person creates in order to be able to sleep, in order to be able to have a relationship with somebody and them not touch their arm, even though they want to be affectionate with them. It just goes on and on and on. It gets more and more and more complicated and more and more complicated. And. And it is to try and create the certainty, it has to be. Has to get complicated because avoid bumping into the arm with the thorn in it. I mean, you could probably take the thorn out. But that. That can be tricky, Garner. But. But accepting that that is gonna. It's gonna hurt sometimes. And life. Life is going to present us with stuff that we don't want necessarily. And stuff that's up and down and stuff that's not. That's not certain is. It's. It's much more fluid than that. I think it makes things really complicated when we're trying to. Yeah. Trying to hold our experience in place. Whatever experience that is. And the sad thing is that, of course, if we look at it really simply, all those things we're looking for, the peace from the thorn, it is already here. It's literally, like. Literally, I say to the listeners now Just like. Just feel your feet on the floor and just take a breath and relax your shoulders and notice that all that feeling that you're looking for in the outside by trying to make things certain, making life very complicated is just here and it isn't. You don't need to do a tool or technique. You don't need to chase it around the houses. It simply is here and now. As soon as you're in that here and now, it's. It's here and it's just noticing when you're not there, really, and finding that you fall back. I was doing a bit of yoga this morning. I love yoga with Adrienne. She's one of my favorite teachers on YouTube. She's lovely.

Yes.

Doing her. It's called Core and Restore. She's is really. It's a cheeky one because she kind of makes it sound like it's going to be really nice, but your stomach's burning by the end. Anyway, at one point, at the end where you doing the Shavasana and everything, and I just noticed that my head went totally off into, oh, I got to do today and what do I need to plan and blah, blah, you know, into my business. And then they suddenly went, oh, my God, I haven't heard the last minute or two what the blooming woman said at all. What am I supposed to be doing with my body? I don't have no idea. And it's noticing and just coming back and just noticing and coming back. It's that simple, really, is navigating life with ease. See what I did there? Yeah, I see that. We make it so. Yeah. Even in the self. You know, especially in the self development world. That. That being in that place of peace. Well, peace, love and wisdom is really that simple. Yeah. He's just a breath and a. Just where am I? Where's my head? Noticing it. Being aware of it. That's it.

Indeed.

Yeah. It's made so complicated.

Feels kind of good. Yeah. I don't really have anything more to add.

No, me neither. This could be a short one.

Could be. Feels good.

It's fine. Yeah.

Thanks for that word, Claire.

Yeah. I guess just the final thing is that it's just all about awareness and nothing else.

Right. That's it.

You know, that's how simple it is. It's just. It's just noticing our experience and I guess knowing that we're not that.

Yeah. And allowing ourselves to be moved by what we really are.

Yeah. Yeah. Powerful. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I shall see you next time. You betcha. Bye for now. Yay.

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