Living in the flow,
Embrace the nature of your life.
Being aware of your breathing,
Appreciating this moment that you're in,
Allowing your posture to move into a position that is comfortable,
But also allows your head to reach towards the sky and your feet to become grounded,
Allowing yourself to be beheld as not just an expression of your mother and father,
But of nature itself.
You are an expression of the flow of life,
And yet each of us has a choice about whether or not we live in that flow or place ourselves outside of it.
When we talk about living in the flow,
We are talking about embracing your true nature.
We're talking about being yourself without judgment or hesitation.
And it's tiring and deflating to work against your own nature,
Isn't it?
This doesn't mean,
However,
That your nature doesn't change or transform.
Just like in the world,
There are cycles and seasons.
There are times of fullness and times for letting go.
Can we reconcile those?
An early and important spiritual practice for me was the ancient Chinese I Ching,
Or Book of Changes.
It's an oracle with these 64 hexagrams that lead you to a theme and usually a commentary to guide you in your day.
And the I Ching taught me to pay attention to the seasons and cycles of my experience.
One of the hexagrams I would get was called the Zenith,
And it's about living in the fullness of life.
Its advice is to ride it like a wave without thinking about it.
Just let it take you.
In other words,
Don't meddle.
Don't seek to control.
Don't try to save some of the fullness for later.
Just ride the wave.
And the I Ching gave some powerful advice.
Such a time of abundance is usually brief.
Therefore a sage may well feel sad in view of the decline that must follow.
But such sadness does not befit him.
Only a man who is inwardly free of sorrow can care and lead in a time of abundance.
He must be like the sun at midday,
Illuminating and gladdening everything under heaven.
And I love that.
In times of abundance,
Be like the midday sun,
Shining your light for all in the fullness of the day.
And yet are there not also times to not only be like the midday sun,
But to be reflective like the moon?
Or empty and open like the sky?
Or a cold spell so you can harvest and experience what's grown in your summer?
The truth is my best flow is in all the seasons and cycles of my life.
That's the trick you see.
So I invite you to imagine being like the midday sun,
Shining your light.
What does it feel like?
What do you see?
Can you embrace your true nature this way?
And now be like the moon.
Use your light of reflection to shine on little seen places or things that have been completed,
But not fully seen.
What does it feel like?
What do you see?
Can you embrace your true nature this way?
Now be empty and open as the sky.
Fully open with nothing but the expansiveness of life all around you.
What does that feel like?
What can you see?
Can you embrace your true nature this way?
How are you like the fall?
How are you like the winter?
How are you like the spring?
And how is it that you summer?
And in your life right now,
No matter the season on the outside,
What is the season of your life inwardly?
Even though as I speak right now,
It's the start of winter,
I can't help but feel that something in me is spring.
Seeds planted months ago are starting to make themselves known.
And if anything,
I am called most to prune that which needs to go to make room for the growing of those seeds.
So maybe I'm still in fall,
But there's so much in the fullness to enjoy.
And that is like summer.
And I do resonate with the darker days and the coldness that draws me inward.
So maybe we can be one season or an all at once.
And most importantly,
In this moment,
Let the nature within you guide you into a flow that produces the highest and best.
Feel your nature guiding you into a flow that produces your highest and best.
Know your season and you can step fully into the right flow for your life.
