When a yoga teacher who I met during a training a few months ago popped up in my Instagram feed this week with a message that has been echoing for me all week. I took notice.
His reel struck me for its simplicity. Instead of showcasing his physical practice, he was sitting on the floor, speaking into a microphone.
Ironically, the content of his message was about the value of simplicity.
He reminded teachers that the basics of the practice have been established for years, and that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
The message resonated with me as a validation of my teaching style. I tend to prefer simple sequences with basic poses that are accessible to the majority of people, no matter their movement fluency.
Simplicity As a Portal for Insights
Repeating a simple sequence for several rounds allows me and my students to let go of the need to remember intricate choreography and the anxiety of what’s coming next.
Simple makes it accessible and facilitates getting into flow.
The repetition allows us to release the mind and creates space for insight and revelation.
This is a lesson I’ve learned through my best CrossFit workouts.
This lesson extends beyond the realm of physical practice.
Simple doesn’t mean easy. Sometimes — perhaps often, depending on who you are and how you were conditioned — it’s harder to pare back.
Creating Foundations
I like to dive into the nuances of things. I’m also aware that the more complicated something gets, the less accessible it becomes.
Whether it’s explaining the process of buying or selling a home to a new real estate client, helping coaching clients change their habits and create better routines, consulting with clients on marketing strategy, teaching astrology, yoga, or productivity, I often forget how much I know, and how much foundational knowledge I have on a topic that others lack.
Every topic or field of study is like a language. People need to master the fundamentals before they are ready to absorb more nuance.
Just like when we learn to read, we learn our letters and our most basic words before we move onto sentences.
I constantly remind myself to break it down, take it slow, and keep it simple.
Why We Drift to Complexity
These days, it feels like everything is moving toward greater complexity.
Perhaps because we are hit with so much information, it feels like we need to go deeper or get into the cracks and crevices of things in order to stand out and differentiate ourselves. To show we know more than a chatbot, we might feel the need to prove that things aren’t as simple as they seem.
The brain is attracted by the novel; we love the shiny object.
This adds to the allure of creating more complicated frameworks, flows, charts, and maps.
Perhaps we may believe that if we make the issues more complex, we can better justify the services or solutions we offer and prove our value.
The Value of Simplicity
But this can backfire. Nuance and complexity create a maze that can keep us trapped. Perhaps it’s true that “the devil is in the details” — just not in the way we usually use that expression.
In a world increasingly filled with complexity, perhaps the best way to stand out is to be the one who makes it simple.
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