Flow Like Water

Cultivate an open awareness, to flow with the ever going dynamic experience of our lives. In this practice, we learn to work with whatever our present moment experience is. By working with the present, we learn to prime ourselves for flow and unveil any truth wanting to emerge.

Transcript

Welcome to this meditation on flowing like water.

When you're ready,

Begin to settle in and make any adjustments that you need for this practice.

This can either be done sitting or lying down.

There's no right or wrong here,

Just find a position that's comfortable for you.

And if it feels fitting,

Closing the eyes and giving yourself permission to be here.

Just know where you need to go,

Nothing else you need to be doing.

Maybe taking a few deeper than normal breaths,

Breathing in fully through the diaphragm and just letting go on the exhale.

As you settle a little deeper into stillness,

Bringing attention to what is present to you right now.

Just feeling what it's like to be you in this moment with this body and mind.

Maybe you notice sensations such as tightness or warmth in the body.

Maybe noticing pressure of the body against the chair or against the floor.

Maybe noticing thoughts right now.

Without judgment or the need to change anything,

Being fully present with whatever is here for you right now.

However active or inactive the mind or however the body feels.

Whatever emotions come up,

See if you can just be here and be present to whatever is invitation to offer this suggestion to yourself.

There's nowhere I need to be right now.

There's nothing that needs to be done in this moment besides being here right now.

There's nowhere I need to be right now.

There's nothing that needs to be done in this moment besides being here right now.

And resting with a sense of being complete and with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness,

We will now transition into a visualization.

So begin calling to mind an image of a beautiful body of water.

This could be a lake,

An ocean.

It can be a body of water that you know and that you're familiar with.

Or it can be imagined.

Again,

That's not right or wrong.

See if you can be okay with whatever does or does not come up.

And just letting this image of a lake or a body of water come to mind.

As you call this image of a body of water,

Let it come into greater focus and notice its qualities.

You might notice that its color is a certain way.

You may notice how certain textures or colors blend together.

You may notice this body of water's surface.

Maybe it reflects the sun or the sky.

It may be ripply and wavy.

You might even notice the surrounding landscape.

Again,

Not right or wrong,

Just seeing what comes up.

Now sensing what it would be like to sit or stand right next to this body of water and to experience its presence.

Imagining you are sitting or standing right next to this body of water,

Feeling the temperature,

The air,

Maybe the humidity against you,

And experiencing this body of water's presence.

Now seeing if you can imagine merging the body of water to become a part of your own beingness.

Allowing your body and the water to become one.

Again,

There's no right or wrong here in doing this.

Just allow whatever does or doesn't happen to emerge on its own.

And merging yourself as if you're becoming one with this body of water.

Sitting here,

Sharing the massiveness and the stillness of the water.

Being one with it.

And with each breath,

Feeling what it is like to dissolve and rest in the flow of this oneness.

With each breath becoming a little more like water,

Vital,

Flowing,

Yet unwavering in your inner stillness.

Let the rhythm of breathing mimic the gentle rocking of water waves,

Rocking back and forth as you're one with this water,

Recognizing that you're whole exactly as you are,

Beyond words and thoughts.

Just a centered,

Grounded,

Unmoving presence.

As you sit here,

Maybe becoming aware of the ever-growing changing of life and conditions outside of this body of water.

The sun travels across the sky,

Followed by cool nights,

Goes from lightness to darkness with stars,

Then the gradual dawning of a new day again.

There are days of clouds coming and going.

Some moments are windy and wavy.

Others,

Sunny and completely still.

It's all part of the experience.

And through it all,

Water just flows with whatever arises,

Experiencing change in each moment,

Yet always just being itself,

Remaining pure,

Untouched,

And unmoved at its deepest being.

While everything on the surface changes,

The lake itself remains unchanged.

The seasons flow into one another as the weather changes moment by moment and day by day,

Maybe even hour by hour.

Underneath it all,

There's a calm that remains still and flows with everything.

So,

Sensing what it's like right now to flow with whatever arises,

Now sensing what it's like to trust the power in your own stillness,

Again,

Maybe breathing into that.

At any point,

If you find that your mind has wandered or that judgment or questions around am I doing this right,

Is anything working,

If those come up,

Just recognize those as thoughts and try to return to the practice.

Again,

That's completely normal.

The mind will do what the mind does.

Just continue going back to flowing and being here.

Now,

Sensing what it's like and trusting the calm that is always available to you.

Maybe if you look inside of you,

There's a certain part of your body that feels safe and like a rock to help ground yourself,

And trusting the calm in that space and knowing that you can always return there when needed.

In any season,

This body of water may find itself with stormy clouds or fog or maybe pelted by rain.

People may visit this body of water and comment on how beautiful it is,

Or maybe they might say that it's not a good day to be here,

That it's too cloudy or it's too rainy,

But none of this matters to the body of water.

It just remains itself at all times.

The weather changes,

People come and go,

Yet the water's magnificence and beauty is not changed one bit by whether people see it in the sun or they see it in the clouds or whether it's night or day.

It just sits there being itself,

Remaining one,

Remaining whole,

No matter its internal conditions or the external conditions.

This body of water doesn't compare itself to how clear its water was this time last year.

It doesn't judge how it isn't as big as the other lakes or maybe that it's too big.

It doesn't come up with game plans or strategic strategies to be more appealing next year so that it will attract more tourists.

The water just remains itself in its own beauty and allowing everything else to unfold on its own.

And now,

Sensing what it's like for you to just be one with water,

Unchanged at your deepest level and allowing everything else to unfold on its own,

Letting go of control or the need for validation or the need to really do anything aside from acting from this place of stillness and being,

There's nothing to be done.

Maybe see if you can let go any part of you that feels the need to grind things out or force something to happen and instead just feeling what it's like to flow from within,

Nothing to go out and get,

Just trusting the emergence of your potentials,

Wholeness,

And strengths that are already within you and trusting that this moment is exactly how it should be.

And we'll hold an open awareness for a couple minutes and invitation here to just flow with whatever arises.

The rhythm of your breath is all that moves you,

Flowing moment to moment,

Nothing to do,

Just being.

In the same way as we sit in meditation,

We can learn to flow like water throughout our day.

We can embody that same unwavering stillness in the face of the ever-changing experience of this thing we call life.

Life will present its own periods of light and darkness,

Activity and inactivity,

Stormy weather,

Sunshines,

Joys,

Depressions,

Uncertainty,

Happiness,

Our bodies and environments constantly changing.

We might see that our thoughts and feelings and even the things that happen to us are very much like the experience of the body of water.

Sometimes we may take it personally or try to control things,

But it has stronger characteristics,

It's impersonal and out of our hands,

And we can learn to flow with it all.

We don't ignore or deny anything,

Rather,

We recognize that anything can be encountered,

Honored,

Felt,

And known for what it is,

And just held in awareness,

And in holding it this way,

Emergence of stillness and wisdom might come about.

And even if it doesn't,

We can learn to flow with that as well.

So by becoming one with the water in our practice of our meditation practice that we call life,

We can connect to our always present power and wholeness.

We see that we are enough as we are and that everything we need and all the strengths and wisdom is already inside of us.

We just need to go within and allow this emergence to express ourself.

So in this remaining time,

Allowing yourself to sit in stillness and with the flow of your beingness,

And you can sit here for as long as it feels serving to you,

And whenever you feel ready,

You can just wiggle the toes,

Wiggle the fingers,

Begin to become aware of the sounds in the room,

And just make some slight movements to adjust yourself back to this life.

Give yourself some credit and gratitude for practicing today,

And thank you for joining me.

Namaste.