An integrated interior life certainly requires an element of effort: to show up each day in silence, to carve out time in defiance of all of life’s distractions, to conquer the resistance of “Oh, I will just pray tomorrow.”
But, truly, a bigger and trickier part is the commitment to effortlessness. If the point is to tune to how deeply we are loved and to trust in this love, then a massive egoic effort will not help us. We need effortlessness, a sense of abandon, as in love or sleep.
This effortless effort is certainly a paradox, but a fruitful one, worth engaging.
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