Going With The Flow

On today's episode we are discussing the flow of life. Are you resisting or allowing yourself to be in this flow?

Transcript

Welcome to Life,

Lessons and Laughter with your host Glenn Ambrose.

Hello there.

Welcome to Life,

Lessons and Laughter with Glenn Ambrose.

I'm here with Ben Barber and Dave DeAngelis,

Our producers.

And today we're going to talk about life.

Life's flow.

You were told one thing.

Don't mention Dave.

I know.

I just completely blew that away.

But I covered it.

Alright.

Yeah,

You did.

Alright,

So we're going to go.

I covered it really well,

So we're just going to move on.

I'm the co-host now.

Yeah.

As I was in the beginning.

And ever shall be.

Perhaps.

Alright,

Well we've ruined another opening.

What do you want to talk about?

So we're talking about the flow of life.

We're either in it or we're not.

So basically there's only a flow of wellbeing.

And right now I ain't in it.

Oh,

There's only a flow of wellbeing.

So we're either allowing it or we're resisting it.

So that is,

That's the topic for today.

So basically this is,

It's a broad idea.

Idea with an R at the end.

It's a broad idea.

So it's,

There's a flow and we're either in it or we're not.

And if we're in it,

Life is easy.

And it works.

And it's effortless.

And it's fun.

Okay.

And if we're not.

And if it's not.

It's.

It's what I'm doing.

Perhaps.

It's probably like a river.

Like you're swimming upstream.

Yeah.

It's like where,

Like I had,

I got this visual years ago,

Which kind of helped me remember this,

This idea.

And I just kind of envisioned myself standing in a river when things weren't going well in my life.

I envisioned myself standing in a river with like these two like garbage can tops,

You know,

Holding onto the handles and just trying to hold the water back.

And it's all just pushing me,

You know,

Pushing me over and going around me and over me and,

You know,

And I'm struggling.

And then if I just tilt the can lids back and float on my back,

I just go down the river effortlessly with the flow,

You know.

And a lot of times that's what happens is we get in our own way and we're just we're trying to where we're resisting the flow that's coming at us,

Because generally we think we know what's best for us and we know we think we know how things are supposed to go.

But we're we're looking at life through such a limited perspective.

We don't know the big picture.

We don't know what's best for us in most situations.

So we're trying to make things go our way because we think they're supposed to.

And if we just relax and go with the flow,

All of a sudden things get a lot easier and they turn out better than we could ever have imagined,

Because we're not running the show from our little limited perspective.

We're going with the flow of life that that has the larger picture.

That's designing everything.

OK,

This sounds really nice in theory,

And the,

You know,

Talking points of the analogy is great.

What does it mean?

Really?

Like what like specifically how does going with the flow or,

You know,

Look different than resisting it?

In real life.

Yeah.

In real life,

It's it's pretty it's easy to tell.

Our emotions are our guidance system.

So if you're feeling like crap,

You're resisting.

If you're feeling good,

You're going with the flow.

It's generally it,

You know,

And I'm not talking about a drug induced coma feeling good.

I mean,

Obviously,

But,

You know,

When you're when you're feeling good,

When things are effortless and going with the flow,

Like with with my business,

I,

You know,

I take a lot of action.

I can get caught up in taking too much action sometimes.

So if I'm caught up in taking action and just doing too much and I'm not relaxing and allowing things to unfold,

Then I can actually resist what's trying to get to me.

So in my business,

I'm you know,

It's it's still fairly new.

I'm still acclimating to the to finding a balance where where I'm,

You know,

Being a single parent and I'm running this business and I'm having events and I'm doing this and that and also having fun.

So like I was working hard getting this business going and trying to find that balance.

I went on vacation and got two new clients while I was on vacation,

Where the couple months prior,

I hadn't gotten any new clients.

So I was so caught up in the doing and the trying to,

Oh,

Well,

You know,

I'll do this and this will expand this way.

And what if I do this and I'll try to do this and,

You know,

I got caught up in the doing.

And as soon as I relaxed and got back into the flow,

I'm not that's not well,

The flow of life is not about us busting our butt to to try to make things happen.

You know,

It's because it's not fun.

If you're doing all this,

You know,

Work all the time and you're not enjoying your life enough,

That will block the flow because that's not the flow of life.

Flow of life is supposed to be enjoyable.

It's supposed to be pleasant.

That's how you know you're in it.

You know,

So so as I stepped away from that and took a vacation focused on a little self-care,

Then all of a sudden the things that had been trying to come to me had space to come in.

So that's how you know,

That's an example of how it played out in my life recently.

It sounds a lot like the we did a podcast earlier last year about not fighting against what is.

Yeah.

It sounds like it's a little bit of that.

Not entirely that,

But that's like the first step to it.

Yes,

I mean,

They're very closely related in some ways.

They're the same thing.

You know,

It's it's the this these types of topics.

We say this all the time.

They blend together all the time.

So it's there when when life isn't going the way you want it to and you're resisting,

You know,

You can feel a resistance.

There's there's generally if you pay attention to your body,

There's there's a sense of contraction,

Tightness,

Stress.

You know,

That type those types of feelings are us resisting what is what's happening,

What's trying to happen.

And there's you can apply it to.

Anything.

Anything in your life.

You know,

That's why it's like I know sometimes it's hard coming up with specific examples when there's too many of them.

You know,

Like,

I don't know,

You could probably apply this to getting a coffee or anything in life,

You know,

Just absolutely anything in your life that that isn't going well.

Then you're not in the flow,

You're not allowing it,

You're not going with.

With the flow of life,

And a lot of times it's because we're trying too hard and we should give up.

Heck no.

Action is action is an important part,

And living in an aware in awareness is an important part.

But,

You know,

And that's that's generally what happens is we'll go too far in one direction.

It's like we have to participate in our own lives to,

You know,

I needed to I needed to take the action to book the vacation.

Right.

And actually get on the plane and go if I did.

That's my action.

That's I needed to participate in my own self care,

You know,

And as I did that,

Then that's what opened up the allowing.

OK.

All right.

So it's not,

You know,

And obviously I'm kidding,

Because if you're fighting a if you're,

You know,

If using the river analogy,

If you're fighting a river,

The best thing to do is give up and go with it.

But,

You know,

You're making a choice to to do something to try to get back in the flow to make a.

But how do you how do you see if you're it doesn't feel like it would be as obvious that you're fighting against it in life.

Like it's not obvious because we're used to it.

That's the problem is that's that's a big problem in our society is that where.

I'm being uncomfortable,

Being miserable,

Being unhappy.

That's the norm.

A lot of,

You know,

Like,

Oh,

Let's get together and complain about how crappy the weather is out today.

I mean,

You can do that and you will find limitless people to talk to and they'll all agree with you and you'll feel that that human connection and you'll get a little ego stroke out of it because you're feeling connected with society.

But but that's at the end of the day,

That's all it is.

It's useless complaining about a rainy day.

It doesn't get you anywhere.

But that's the norm.

You know,

People feel that a camaraderie when they complain together.

Speaking of,

You know,

Your what helped you,

I was taking a vacation,

Helped you get back into the flow.

This is kind of a weird deterred,

Deterred.

What am I trying to say?

Tangent.

Tanger.

I don't want to go on,

But I just I have a question.

I was reading something online the other day about the open vacation,

Unlimited vacation that some businesses are doing now.

I think it's a big I think it's a big deal because Richard Branson implemented it recently.

But basically it's you have a limited vacation time throughout.

Like they gave it several companies have done it,

But like they give a limited vacation time to their employees.

And it's found that like it 100 percent improves their 100 percent,

But it improves their like they work harder for you.

Right.

And they're not,

You know,

Trading time.

They don't feel like they're trading time anymore.

And it's like you need time off for this.

Go,

You know,

And some companies are even paying.

They have an incentive for vacations.

They're,

You know,

Like here's a thousand dollars towards you going on a vacation.

You have to you have to bring back some sort of receipt that proves that you are on a vacation,

That you were going out and enjoying yourself.

And like,

Well,

The idea is beautiful,

You know,

I mean,

It's it's funny what we choose to implement and what we choose not to implement,

Because like,

You know,

We'll we'll sit there and we'll go,

You know,

People who are against.

We'll say the way of thinking that I talk about,

They'll the first thing that they like to do is they'll come in with a bunch of scientific facts.

Oh,

Well,

You can't prove this and well,

You know,

Where's the proof?

And,

You know,

I don't know about the proof and then and blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

But every scientific study out there says that a worker that is well rested,

That has appropriate vacation time and appropriate breaks throughout the day is a better worker.

Yet do we implement that?

No,

We try to get as much as humanly possible out of our workers with limited breaks and milk them to the bone.

You know,

That's generally what a lot of businesses do out there.

And it's like,

Well,

We have scientific proof that says that that's not how you're going to get the most production out of them.

Why don't they go listen to that scientific proof?

Why?

Because it's not in their mindset of how to do things.

It's just outside.

It's outside their box of thinking.

So they just choose not to do that,

Which the example you just gave is the opposite.

Richard Branson.

And other and other companies are trying this because they are listening to some scientific studies that a happy worker is a good worker and all that type of mentality.

And from what you said,

I don't know anything about this,

But from what you said,

They're getting positive results from it,

Which doesn't surprise me.

You know,

It's that's when when you dare to think outside the box,

You stumble upon things instead of just shutting a thought system down without trying it.

You try it for a little while.

And that's what I say to everybody that,

You know,

That's kind of the the the core principle of the work that I do.

It's if you just want to shut your mind down and go,

Absolutely not.

OK,

Then there's the door.

You can stay on that side of it.

I'll be over here living my life and I'm not going to try to change your opinion because it's a waste of time.

They've shut the door on it.

But if somebody is open,

Honest and willing enough to try something different.

For a little while,

Then come on in,

Let's try and see what happens.

And I have yet to find anybody that's tried the things that I that I talk about and has gained zero benefits out of it.

Now,

Some people will get some benefits and go,

Yeah,

But I don't know.

It's it's,

You know,

They'll rationalize it away like,

Well,

They're not big enough benefits for me to change how I do things.

OK,

Whatever.

Then you're not ready and you can go back to your side of the door.

It's fine,

You know.

But if if anybody has tried stuff,

They've seen some positive benefits out of it.

And if they choose to continue down that road,

They'll continue seeing the positive benefits.

You know,

If the fear bubbles up and they decide to shut back down,

Then they won't.

I was just thinking,

I know that that was a complete tangent,

But it just made me think about it because the idea of like people feel stuck.

Like,

You know,

If you're resisting,

If you're not in the flow,

Like it's not as easy to stop resisting as no,

It's not.

Especially if you if you're you know,

It's not easy,

But it's very simple.

Yes.

And that's how everything is in this life.

It doesn't mean that it's easy because it goes against,

You know,

All the years of conditioning that our society has been in for thousands of years.

Plus that we're in.

You know,

There's a lot of conditioning that this goes against.

And that's why it's not easy.

It's not easy just just to change things.

You know,

They're deeply rooted within us.

So,

Yeah,

You're right.

It's not easy all the time,

Especially for somebody that's been stuck for a while.

But it is simple.

You know,

It's it's it's a simple idea.

It works.

And this is one of the reasons why in almost everything I do,

I recommend getting an outside perspective.

Because,

You know,

If you're sitting in your world with your belief systems and you go,

Oh,

OK.

So I need to do everything differently now.

Ready?

Go.

OK,

I don't know what that looks like.

And then,

You know,

And then let's say you you listen to one of my podcasts and you're like,

Oh,

OK,

I'm going to implement that.

I'm going to try to implement what he said there.

So you go.

And I mean,

Some people will be fine doing that,

But other people are going to try to implement something new,

One of these ideas.

And they're not going to really know how to do it.

And what's going to happen is they'll try to find a way to implement it.

And they'll be like,

Well,

No,

I shouldn't do it that way because it doesn't feel right.

And that doesn't make any sense.

And it doesn't make sense if I do it that way.

So I'll do it this way.

And what they're doing is they're just setting themselves up for failure because they're steering themselves right back into the old way of doing things.

You know,

That's why the outside perspective is so important.

If you're planning on making a shift in your life,

You need to.

Abandon your old way of thinking to a new way of thinking for a period of time.

You know,

You need to have somebody show you how to stay in the flow because you're just going to keep reverting back to your old way of doing things.

You know,

To this day,

Like I said,

When at the beginning of this podcast,

I said that I am action oriented.

So I know what I'm I know this subject that we're talking about in this podcast.

I've been trying to implement it in different ways in my life for many years now.

But I just gave an example of,

You know,

Something that happened a month ago.

So it's you know,

I'm not perfect at it.

It's something that happened a month ago.

I'm sitting there trying to say,

OK,

Glenn,

You know,

You're you're trying too hard.

You're working too much.

You need to bring a good balance.

You need to have a good level of fun in your life and enjoy your life and relaxation in your life.

And you've been working too hard.

Now,

I know all this and I've been juggling it for months.

And it took me a while to work through.

And I don't I'm still not all the way through.

You know,

I'm a lot better this month than I was two months ago.

I've got a lot better balance.

I'm doing more fun things.

I'm leaving time more for myself and I'm falling into the flow more.

I'm having more enjoyment in my life.

You know,

It's coming together.

But just because I know this stuff doesn't mean I can snap my fingers and it's easy to implement.

It's time.

No,

For the quote of the I was going to say day show episode.

This one is about flow.

The is that the Geico check?

Yes.

Okay.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous.

So it's like that.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

Don't resist them.

That only creates sorrow.

Let reality be reality.

Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

By Liao,

Too.

I get it.

Liao.

Liao.

I knew it.

I like we practice.

This is the first quote we ever like practice how I say the name beforehand.

And I messed it up so bad.

It was close.

No,

It wasn't.

I could be pronouncing it wrong.

Who knows?

And who is this person?

The founder of Taoism or Taoism was it's actually pronounced.

So what do you think of the quote?

It's good.

And,

You know,

Right at the end,

I mean,

Right at the end,

It reminded me of my friend Brian,

Who I was talking to last night.

And he's he's an amazing man.

Brian Reed.

He's in this area and does some great work.

And he talks about instead of using the word forward,

Using the word toward.

So instead of because like if you're moving forward,

What if your goals like behind you or over to the right when you're moving forward,

Then you're moving away from it.

But if you're moving toward your goal,

Then you're always moving toward it.

And sometimes when we're moving toward our goal,

We the flow of life kind of takes us over to the left a little and takes us over to the right a little.

And it's not a straight line always.

But if we're always moving toward it,

We'll get there.

You know,

So I that so you're saying that Brian.

Is more is more and I am the writer of the Dow Day Ching.

You heard it here first,

Folks.

I really I really like that.

That example he gives,

You know,

It's it's it's good stuff.

But yeah,

The quote itself is is right on.

Also,

Yeah,

The quote says,

Let let life let things flow forward and they will,

You know,

The direction you're going might not be forward,

But things will flow for life is flowing forward.

The rivers flowing in one direction.

Yeah.

And this is,

You know,

Where it's where it's helpful to have some sort of belief in a power greater than ourselves.

You know,

I mean,

If if people who have a faith in in that something bigger than themselves is running the show,

Then.

If,

You know,

If this creator loves us,

Which every sage and enlightened person and religion and spirituality belief system teaches us that it's a loving presence,

Then this loving presence is going to be steering the flow of life in the best direction possible for us.

You know,

It's every time in my life that I have thought I wanted something and it didn't work out for me every time,

Usually within about two weeks,

Another door opened up that was even better.

That I didn't even know existed.

But that only happens is if if you allow it,

You know,

If you're if you're sitting there and you're at that door,

You think you want to open and it's locked and you just keep sitting there pulling on it for three weeks and trying to kick it in.

Then the door that's opened right behind you,

You're not going to see it.

You know,

Then that opportunity can pass and then it's like,

Oh,

Gee,

See,

Or even my life stinks.

Even if you stop trying to open the door,

But you just continue to look at it and focus on the fact that that door isn't going to open.

Right.

You know,

If that's where your focus is,

Because that's I think that's the biggest problem is not even like continually trying to open the door that's not going to open.

It's it's stopping trying to open the door that's not going to open,

But still focusing all of your attention on that door.

Right.

And I think that that happens all the time.

And getting angry that it won't open and feeling like a victim,

Because I know this door is the best thing humanly possible for me.

And if it doesn't open,

Then God doesn't love me and blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And I'm a victim.

And then they stay stuck in that victim mentality that nobody loves them and it's not fair.

And and then they just stay there where if they just took a deep breath,

Found a level of acceptance and turned around,

That'd be another door.

And that door would be even better,

You know.

But yeah,

We need to break that.

Break that focus on the negative and open up to the possibility that there might be another way that's even better that we're unaware of.

Speaking of the flow.

Yo.

And your journey through it,

I'm holding in my hand a copy of Natural Awakenings.

Oh,

My God.

I didn't know you were going to bring that up.

I'm so embarrassed.

I mean,

You didn't think you did know that I was going to bring it up.

I didn't,

But I'm really not embarrassed.

So,

Yeah,

This is Rhode Island Natural Awakenings magazine,

I guess is what you would call it.

Yeah,

That's.

Yeah,

It's definitely.

It's definitely a magazine.

So talk to me about this.

You are published in here.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I wrote an article this month is based around addiction.

And that's one of the things that I focus on in my practice is all different forms of addiction.

So I wrote an article and they put it in there,

Which is nice.

Maureen is the publisher.

She's a great person.

She actually swung by and dropped off those magazines right before I came out here.

So,

But yeah,

There's a nice little article in there and some advertising in the back for my business.

It's free.

It's free.

And every issue is a green issue.

And there's also,

I put several of my events in there each month in the calendar,

List things in the back.

And,

You know,

Not just for my business.

I mean,

It's a great magazine.

There's lots of good information in there and good articles in there.

And there's a lot of people I know personally that advertise in there that are phenomenal in their areas of expertise.

This is very nice.

This is,

Yeah,

This is the first time I've seen this magazine.

I like it.

Yeah,

They're distributed a lot of places,

A lot of businesses when you walk in the door,

You know,

They have racks and stuff like that.

You'll find them there.

Very cool.

And hey,

There's your picture in the back with all of your information.

Where can people find you if they want more information?

They can find me in the back of Natural Awakenings magazine.

All my information's right there.

All right.

Go pick one up.

No,

They can find me at life-enhancement-services.

Com on Facebook,

Life Enhancement Services,

Or just,

You know,

You can probably just Google me,

Glenn Ambrose with two N's.

But don't look at all the police records.

I'm kidding.

So I think that's going to.

.

.

You are the worst person at selling yourself.

Well,

Yeah,

I'm not selling myself that,

That's probably why.

I'm just speaking what I speak,

Man.

Wow.

All right.

So that's about it.

I think we're going to wrap it up.

You'd be a good pilot if you just knew how to take off or land.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I'm excellent at flying.

All right.

That's it.

I'll see you guys later.

Bye.

This podcast is presented by New Shore Productions,

Executive producers Glenn Ambrose,

Benjamin Barber,

And David DeAngelis.

Reviews

Here I am! You're favorite serial listener! Haha! Surrendering and accepting helps me go with the flow. Keep it simple. Keep it basic! Ride the wave! Weeeeeeeeee

Back in the flow Glenn! Thank you!

Informative and entertaining. 😌