Things don't have to be complicated... but they are.

I always see posts about things not having to be complicated while I'm looking for inspiration and words of wisdom on social media. (Which is maybe our first problem.)

Things don't have to be complicated...

• just be yourself (who is that, even?)
• do what you love (I doubt eating would make a good career)
• smile :) (why?)
• pray (how?)
• meditate (how?)
• blah blah on and on

If things don't have to be complicated--and I'm using deductive reasoning here-- then things, or life should be easy... simple.

My question then, is why are so many people medicated for depression and anxiety? Why, if life is simple, do people commit suicide and harm others or themselves? Why are more and more people seeking out other forms of health care to add to their daily elixirs? Why the sharp and almost desperate increase in more holistic and Eastern remedies and fitness routines?

Maybe things don't HAVE to be complicated. But they are. We are a living, breathing, thinking organism and we are full of complications. Take your own personal brain chemistry, your own cellular energy, your own preferences, your own experiences, the things you love and the stuff you  dislike, the horrible events that have happened to you, the wonderful ones that have changed you, the people around you. There is a whole MEDLEY of things in our life that add to complicate. We aim to understand, because we are a living, breathing, thinking, learning organism. We want to understand why things happen to us. Why do we deserve this life, why don't we? We wager and bargain and justify and deny and we think, think, think.  We complicate.

And when we're trying to live simply and detangle our lives, and something goes wrong, we beat ourselves up or get more confused about how to live, further complicating things.

Things don't have to be complicated, but they are. And maybe for good reasons. If life was not complicated, we wouldn't feel that pang of sadness we get sometimes late at night or that sense of accomplishment after years of hard work. We wouldn't be able to sit with our emotions, good or bad, and feel them--truly feel them. We wouldn't ask ourselves important questions--about God, the universe, ourselves. If life was not complicated, we wouldn't know what it is to be in love. If life had an easy fix, there would be no reason for our brains, our awareness, our thoughts, our bodies.

Life is simply complicated, as are most things that go with it. Don't complicate things further by trying to understand or fix it. Let it be complicated. Because the most complicated situations in your life will teach you the most simple lessons. And those lessons are the answer.