A teacher of mine once laughed and said to me, “Only dead fish go with the flow”.
As long as we’re alive in a body, we will always have ‘out of flow’ moments – those times when things don’t go as we planned and everything seems to fall flat; when our wonderful state of grace turns into a somewhat embarrassing belly-flop. These are the times when we need strategies to right ourselves, adjust and swim right back in there.
Being out of flow is caused by judgement. There are always reasons ‘out there’ to explain why we’re knocked off course, but the only real reason for it is that we have made a comparison and decided, often unconsciously at first, that something just isn’t right.
I’m not talking about flick-of-the-tail, subtle direction-changing judgements – those are quick and fun because they come from the intuition. No, we get stuck because we become attached to something being bad – and often we think that something is us!
Comparison and judgement send us into our heads, to work out how to make things right again. Once we get caught in struggling and trying to fix a ‘hard’ situation, we’re out of flow.
Being in the flow of Life is a feeling thing. It’s also about total acceptance of what is, however that feels, and rolling with it until the next move becomes clear. It’s not about always feeling good, having inspiration or having all the answers. We are all ‘in process’, learning lessons and revisiting old ‘stuckness’ until it learns to flow.
There are times when we just feel bad. That can be a healthy stage of learning and healing, telling us that we have some limitations we’ve unknowingly placed on ourselves, and adjustment is needed – telling us it’s time to reach for more Life.
Accepting where you are and being totally honest, shining light on it (preferably while breathing consciously), will lead you back to that place where doors start opening and answers start appearing. It may seem ironic but that is how it works.
Sometimes it just isn’t that easy and we need a hand to help us see the bigger picture and get our tail-fins flipping again. Sometimes we just need to be reminded what great and glorious swimmers we really are. That’s when it’s wise to make things easier for ourselves and ask for help.
Going with the flow is exhilarating and no two people experience it the same way. Being able to enjoy where every moment goes, no matter how it looks or feels, makes us remember why we came here in the first place – for the thrill of Living.
* Thanks to Geoffrey Whiteway at FreeRangeStock for the photo.
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