The Natural Tendency Is for Things to Get Worse
And who says that is a bad thing?
One gift I don’t have is that of memory. I don’t remember what 80% of the books I’ve read or movies I’ve watched were actually about. Yet, I will always remember the idea that “the natural tendency of all things is to get worse” which I read as a teenager in the book In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky. Not only that, but many years ago I repeated this sentence to a friend, who up until today still reminds me of it whenever we meet. Talking about some ideas having an impact on ys.
Is putting effort natural? Inertia certainly seems more natural to us humans, and that is what this sentence is referring to. Humans are satisficers, not optimizers. The least effort we need to put on something, the better.
If we don’t put effort into things, then the natural tendency of everything is to get worse, till it disintegrates and dies.
Put some effort into something, and chances are we are capable to keep it as it is. Clean the house here and there, so it does not get too dirty — but it never gets sparkly either. Work on a project one night per week, and gaining momentum will be tricky.
Now… want something to get REALLY good? Then the only way is to put a lot of energy into it.
What does that mean about going for more joyful, fulfilling, purposeful lives?
It means that our work is to fight against gravity.
To stretch over and over again, and not compress.
To expand more than to contract.
To keep up with our practices and be disciplined.
The work of expansion is to fight against safety and comfort.
The work is more than to commit, but to recommit to it every single day.
The work is to sustain focus and intention. Undistractable.
To not be normal, to not be like everybody else, to not comform, to not comply.
To go beyond thinking we are different just because we express our identity with certain brands we surround ourselves with but because we really act and live differently. Because we live on our terms.
Because we fight against gravity.
There’s great strength in not needing the safety and comfort of being another one.
But no, it is not easy. At first. That's the beauty of inertia; at some point, anything becomes easy, even the things you want but are too scared of now.
If it was easy to fight against gravity and go after our big dreams, it wouldn’t require work. But it is not because it is work that it has to be a pain in the ass.
And it is not only about keeping the eyes on the prize either.
It’s about clarity and joy. Can we commit to what we really want? And can we have as much fun as we can while we work?
Dancing requires a lot of sweat and effort… but it is fun. Somehow, we have become quite bad at dancing and playing, and only care about walking in safe straight lines. Expecting progress to be linear. We get bad at failing and forget that failures are only milestones and not endpoints in this project of life.
To fight gravity is to commit to the work in devotion, just like an artist improves her craft. And no, not every day is going to be as joyful as others. That is part of the fact that life is not a straight line.
The energy required to do the work is more than the energy of doing the work. If it was so, we could pivot to a new level and stay there in inertia, keeping it up.
But when we are going against gravity, consciousness and presence are required. That's the only way to keep fighting it and expanding. What are we fighting, exactly? Fighting to be more than human. It's a good fight.
What am I doing right that I can do more to expand more?
What is it that is not working well that I have to rethink or stop?
Because guess what? If we don't put the extra energy, the natural tendency of things is to get worst. And just like that everything goes down and we lose our progress.
The challenge is to not fear the work but to surrender to it with joy. To detach from our small fears because what is in line is so much bigger. We already know what lies within the constraints of gravity: life as it is. What lies behind human gravity? The whole world of possibilities!
To do it all with joy and keep the eyes on the prize; yet to accept that sometimes it is not possible to do it with joy, and keep walking forward anyway. In presence, contemplating what to do differently to get to joy again, to do it better.
It is so obvious and so hard at the same time.
It almost feels like this world came with all these powers such as gravity and inertia just to have us challenge them, be it with airplanes, air balloons, car motors, and working on our dreams. To keep remembering day after day that things don't have to be like they are, that we can shape our reality, over and over again.
What would be the point of dreams if they didn’t require anything from us? If we could materialize everything just like that, how much would we actually want them, or would we just take them all for granted?
To make a dream come true we need to really want it. To make a dream come true we need to fight gravity for it. Get out of safety, stretch, commit and expand.
How much do you want what do you want? Are you willing to fight gravity for it?
Hi, I am Aline Ra M, spiritual guide, energy worker, and tea lover.
