Week 35: Pondering Law of Least Effort

The Law of Least Effort keeps tripping me up. Not only that, I have some concerns I haven’t been able to resolve in my mind yet. The Law of Least Effort has three parts — Acceptance, Responsibility, and Defenselessness. My troubles seem to lie in Defenselessness, but I think that’s merely a symptom of challenges I face in the other two areas.

Acceptance. I practice Acceptance. Today I accept people, situations, circumstances, and events as they occur. I know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. I do not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against this moment. My acceptance is total and complete. I accept things are they are in this moment, not as I wish they were.

I’ve long believed things happen for a reason, and this supports that. The challenge is accepting things that happen that don’t fit with the way I wanted it to happen. If I understand what we’ve been learning correctly, the universe is what we have collectively manifested from our thoughts, and if we don’t like it, we need to collectively realign our thoughts. Unfortunately, this is largely an individual endeavor, and most do not understand their own power, and thus, fail to harness it. But, for those of us who do understand we can make a difference, we have a charter to make a continuous effort to improve.

Responsibility. Having accepted things are they are, I take Responsibility for my situation and for all those events I see as problems. I know that taking responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for my situation (and this includes myself). I also know that every problem is an opportunity in disguise, and this alertness to opportunities allows me to take this moment and transform it into a greater benefit.

I find liberation in this one. The phrase “for all those events I see as problems” is liberating. If I don’t want to be responsible? I refuse to see something as a problem. I’m reminded of this on a very low local level at a restaurant we eat breakfast at on weekends. They allow people to put fliers in the windows for all kinds of events, but they purge the outdated fliers infrequently. I catch myself thinking, “They should have someone responsible for periodically purging their windows.” Then I remember, I’m not responsible for this, nor do I want to be, so I remind myself it’s not my problem. Besides. I have many more areas which ARE my problem that need to be taken care of before I worry about someone else’s area of responsibility.

Defenselessness. Today my awareness remains established in Defenselessness. I relinquish the need to defend my point of view. I feel no need to convince or persuade others to accept my point of view. I remain open to all points of view and am not rigidly attached to any one of them.

Defenselessness has been a problem for me, and last night, I think it was again. I sometimes respond to my husband in a way where he says, “I wasn’t attacking you.” Might that mean I was not effectively practicing defenselessness? I’m troubled by these situations, and, perhaps, my approach contributes more to his frustration than I am willing to admit.

The concern I haven’t been able to resolve yet are what if someone is in an abusive relationship? Certainly we wouldn’t expect them to just accept their fate and continue to be abused, would we? Because of that, I believe I’m not interpreting this law effectively. There’s an opportunity with my problems in this area. I’m not clearly identifying the problem or seeing the solution yet.

We have a mastermind for a reason. In this case, my mastermind partner shared thoughts on this subject when we discussed it, and her thoughts, as usual, were right on. She said, “Abuse itself is a situation that has to be dealt with…authorities, walk away, whatever. The person being abused should accept that the abuser is not meant to be part of their life and move forward as a whole, strong, perfect, loving, and harmonious human being. That’s the acceptance part of the situation. They do not need to defend their choice to move on.” That made it so clear to me.

Back my challenges, er, opportunities.