Our Effortless Living Community
Have you been meaning to meditate regularly, to exercise, eat better, or just live a saner life – but still haven’t managed to get around to it?
Are there things you manage to do once in a while that you know are good for you, and that actually make a positive difference in your life, but haven’t yet managed to do on a regular basis?
What if you could be part of a warm supportive community whose purpose is to help you get past your resistances, do those things you’ve been wanting to do, and at the same time, provides you with a way of connecting with others about things that matter to you?
In our online Effortless Living Community, you’ll get daily support for doing those things you want to do. And beyond that, you’ll have guidance for practicing a kind of effortless mindfulness that leads to a profound sense of peace and calm, helps you feel more connected to yourself, and awakens that child-like sense of awe and wonder that so many of us lose touch with as adults.
A Whole Different Approach to Change
We’ve probably all been overwhelmed with advice about what we should eat, how much and what kind of exercise we should do. We’ve been told that practicing meditation and mindfulness would help us to be less stressed. And maybe we even tried some of these things, but either they didn’t help, or worrying about doing them or doing them right just ended up creating more stress.
But maybe it’s not the eating or exercise or mindfulness practice that’s the problem. Maybe there’s something fundamentally off about the way we go about trying to control and fix our lives.
What if there were a radically different way of living that’s not about controlling and fixing ourselves, but instead involves recognizing something that’s already present in the background of our experience, something that’s already essentially calm and contented.
Can You Imagine?
Can you imagine what it might be like to be part of a warm, supportive community where:
You could learn this radically different way of living
You could get daily support and inspiration for experiencing more of those shining moments when you’ve spontaneously been struck by an astonishing sense of beauty, love, or well-being, or felt connected to something larger than yourself, to some deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life
You could learn how to make the gentle shift of attention that naturally gives rise to some sense of that peace and well-being you spontaneously feel when you gaze into the vastness of the infinite night sky, or into the eyes of someone you love.
Well, you don’t have to just imagine it because such a community actually exists.
What is Effortless Mindfulness?
In conventional mindfulness, the focus is on learning to change how you attend to the content of your experience – the outer world of sights and sounds or the inner world of sensations, thoughts, and emotions.
In effortless mindfulness, the focus is on learning to shift your attention from its narrow focus on the content of experience to include the context of experience. You may experience that context as a spacious, calm, peaceful, joyful awareness within you, or a spacious, calm, peaceful, joyful awareness in the background of all you experience.
Rather than trying to direct your attention, without judgment, to your breath, aspects of the world around you, or your thoughts and emotions, effortless mindfulness gently directs your attention to this inner or background awareness within and by which all experience is known.
Most of us, at various points in our lives, have spontaneously experienced glimpses of this natural, effortless awareness - a state in which everything just seems to be flowing naturally and effortlessly. In these glimpses, there is an unparalleled sense of ease, harmony and joyful intimacy with whatever or whomever you’re involved with in the moment.
Rather than having to wait for these moments to happen spontaneously, the practice of effortless mindfulness teaches you how you can gently choose to shift your attention in a way that makes the experience accessible at will.
The Effortless Living Community
The Effortless Living Community is a place where:
You have daily support for making practices such as effortless mindfulness, effortless breathing and relaxation – along with healthy eating, exercise and sleep a regular part of your life.
You have support for effortlessly bringing more mindfulness and compassion into all aspects of your life – including, work, relationships, learning, food prep, artistic endeavors, and more.
You can find inspiration and support any time of day for making that gentle shift of attention which brings you back to the joy and ease of being calmly, compassionately present with whatever you’re experiencing in the moment – a state we refer to as “open, heartful awareness”.
You’ll have support for exploring how these positive inner changes can help you in any efforts you may be making to bring about positive change in the world – in family or friend environments, your neighborhood, town, city or beyond.
Could Joining an Online Community Really Make that Big a Difference?
Actually, yes. We’ve probably all had an experience at some point in our life, where doing something we found difficult became a whole lot easier when there was someone to encourage and support us – especially in those moments when we felt discouraged or were losing our resolve.
In fact, there’s a great deal of research showing that having the support of others is one of the critical factors in whether we succeed or fail at making any kind of significant lifestyle change. And, more importantly, in whether we sustain those changes over time.
So let's take a closer look at what the Effortless Living Community has to offer:
It’s a place where you can feel at home, ask questions, share your experiences with others, give and receive support for doing those things that make life saner, sweeter, more enjoyable, and which give it a richer sense of meaning and purpose.
It’s a place where you can find inspiration and support for keeping whatever practices you do fresh and creative.
In addition to the fun of sharing insights and practice tips, there’s the joy of camaraderie that makes doing the practices more fun and interactive – even when you’re doing them on your own.
It makes it easy for you to:
search for others in the community who share your specific interests and/or challenges
find community members who live near you
create private group chats or zoom meetings with community members who share your practice interests – right within the community itself.
I am there every day in our virtual “Conversation Lounge” to respond to your questions and suggestions with written responses or short videos addressing your particular concerns.
We have periodic zoom sessions in which I answer your questions in real time.
Significant and lasting change doesn’t happen overnight. It needs time and regular tending to be successful.
And, perhaps most importantly, it needs the support of others.
We invite you to join our Effortless Living Community where you can experience the joy and adventure of joining others in creating the kind of life you want to live. Being a member of the Effortless Living Community will also be the best preparation for any of our courses, including:
our Effortless Mindfulness course (Train Your Brain, Change Your Life)
our Effortless Sleep course (From Restless Nights to Effortless Sleep)
and our upcoming mini-courses:
These will be available in the summer of 2025
Effortless Piano Improvisation
Effortless Mindful Movement
Effortless Breathing, Relaxation and Yoga Nidra
These will be available in the fall of 2025
Effortless Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Effortless Mindful/Heartful Habit Change
Effortless Body Percussion and Body Rhythms