Starting an easier life 

 I thought it might be good to start off talking about why I know life is meant to be easy, and how you can believe that. It's human nature to reject something that goes against what you believe so I know that when some of you heard me say life is meant to be easy your thoughts were going 'yeah but' - and coming up with lots of arguments to prove me wrong! Beliefs are just thoughts that have become habit, in the same way people believed the earth was flat - doesn't mean it's true, just that that is what they were told. People kill for beliefs simply because it's easier to reject than admit you might be wrong, especially when your thoughts are built around it being true. Wouldn't it be better to at least explore whether your belief is right before you stake your life on it?
 There are millions of people out there living an easy life - and by that I mean whatever happens they are OK with it and know how to get the best out of every area of life and themselves. The majority of their time is spent happy. I'm one of them, but I didn't used to be. That's why I know there is an easier way. I've also seen other do it, so it's replicable. There have also been lots of scientific, medical and psychological studies to back up what I will teach (and I will quote them).
 So why aren't we all living easier lives? As I often say - it amazes me how we are prepared to learn and get help in every area of our life except emotions, and yet we say being happy and at peace is all that we want.
 I won't go into too much detail about the why's here as most people just want to know the how (and I will explore it in another place), but there are 2 reasons I want to look at here:
 1. You are surrounded by people like you
 2. You can't imagine life any different
 
  1. You are surrounded by people like you
 We feel safest with people like ourselves, however that also allows us to stay as we are. If you mix with people who say life is not meant to be easy why would you think any different? You'd expect it to be hard, and if you said any different those around you would say you were mad as it suits them for you to see it there way.
 
 One of the first steps to changing your life is to mix with people who are already as you want to be. And by mix that can simply be reading about those people, or watching their TV shows (like I am with The Dog Whisperer - I want to stay as grounded as he is). It doesn't mean dumping everyone else, or becoming someone else it - it's learning from someone who can do it, whether it is better relationships, health, finances or to be at peace and applying it to your life. Unfortunately we tend to do the opposite and mix with people who are as unhappy as we are as we think it's easier to moan than change. Nah, plus you are denying yourself an easier life.
 
 There's a beautiful story that illustrates this:
 Once upon a time a king who ruled a small country heard that a rival king was going to poison their drinking water so he warned his people and stored away some water. Unfortunately most of his people ignored his warning and drank the poisoned water, and it made them go insane - only they didn't realise they were insane and thought it was the king who had been poisoned! The king and the few other people who hadn't drunk the water tried to explain but they wouldn't listen and threatened to kill the king as they didn't want an insane person ruling them. Fearing for his life the king drank the water and his people were happy. The few sane people left then felt very lonely as most of their family and friends were now very different to them, so they too drank the water and all was well again.
 
 2. You can't imagine life any different
 Unless you have a clear image of how much better life could be you will only change when forced to, and at the moment you probably can only imagine life as it is. Sure you may dream of winning the lottery but you don't really see how else your life could change. The problem with this is that unless you can imagine and believe life can be better you are not going to do what it takes to find out how to make it happen. The how is easy - it's deciding to believe it's possible that is hard. What if you fail? What if you waste time and get disappointed, or people laugh at you? Well you can start step 1 and dreaming of how you want life to be without anyone knowing, and the more you do that the more you will realise it's possible. (There may be some issues you have that prevent you from dreaming or believing so the first step might be clearing those.)
 Would you rather believe and be wrong, or not believe and be wrong?
 As I said before - your mind sees unfamiliar things as danger and will throw up fear and doubt so the more you allow yourself to imagine an easier life the more comfortable you will be in making it happen. And of course you have to know what you want so you can start researching the how. Better health, more money doing what you love, confidence, a dream house, love - I guarantee there is a book/ website/ course on it all!
 
 Action
 Start mixing with people who have what you want, whether it's reading about them, watching interviews, going to courses or events that they'd be at, reading websites etc. Be interested in how they did it. (and if you cannot find someone to investigate feel free to e-mail me with your dream and I'll point you in the right direction!) Look for practical information - the how to, and try them.
 
 Start dreaming and imagining yourself with that change - what would life be like if it was easy to earn lots of money, easy to stay calm, easy to have fun, easy to do what ever you want. Writing it down or making a collage can help remind you when you lose the vision.
 
 These are like the foundations making life easier for yourself - especially as they make it easier to make life easier!
 

©2007 Kathryn Hodgson

This article can be reprinted freely as long as the entire article and the above resource box are included, and a copy is forwarded to me.