Stepping Into Flow for Automagic Living
Ever had those days when everything flows effortlessly in your favour? Good things appear around every bend, synchronicities and serendipities abound, you feel alive, open, trusting, ‘in the zone’…? You meet that person, get that call, have that fun, receive that inspiration/opportunity/win? You feel loved and supported by Life, ‘on a roll’, giving and receiving joyously?
Flow is akin to surfing the crest of a wave, riding the very current of life as opposed to struggling against it. It strikes a balance between positive intentions, thoughts, feelings, and actions, and an openness to possibilities and outcomes that may be beyond your current expectations and imaginings.
There isn’t just one path of flow, there are countless depending on your choices; flow will greet you wherever you are, ready to be joined with. It exists as the universal energy that flows through everything, which you can harness and open to for greater grace and ease.
In Taoism, the term Wu Wei means “without exertion” and accounts for when our actions are without struggle or excessive effort, aligned with the flow of life. When you are in the flow you feel connected to something greater than yourself and open to receiving more of all life has to offer.
Flow requires a level of alignment, openness, fluidity and flexibility. It is about effortlessly embracing life’s every moment, rather than controlling, pushing hard, or forcibly trying to attain it. Going with the flow isn’t about not being proactive, procrastinating, avoiding, and not taking responsibility for yourself and your life. Having intentions, focuses, goals and taking action can all facilitate flow.
Have flexibility and humility and be open and sensitive to the flow of your life in different areas. Are you banging on doors that aren’t opening whilst ignoring ones that are? Listen to your intuition about possible paths and outcomes. Does what you are consciously striving for feel in alignment with your heart’s deepest wishes and desires? Is it leading to bright outcomes for yourself/others?
Of course, flow isn’t necessarily always comfortable, just as life isn’t. Challenges, changes, shifts, transitions, endings, and so on, may be part of life’s flow, yet might not necessarily feel pleasant, far from it perhaps.
There can be many reasons we resist or get out of flow, fear and control being two main ones. If we are feeling blocked within ourselves we may also likely experience blocks with flow. A lack of flow may also relate to what’s lacking at a given time. Perhaps your inspiration or imagination has run dry which is blocking flow, or perhaps it’s fun and joy that you’re experiencing a drought of, or intimacy and connection. Offering yourself the antidote of whatever you sense you are depleted in can help restore you and re-lubricate the wheels of flow in a given area.
To move from feeling stuck and out-of-synch to back into flow can be a gear-changing process. It may be fast, instant even, or it may take a period of time. Stepping into flow can involve both the release of what is holding you back, and the re-aligning of your energy towards optimum living. A first step in any realignment is to accept yourself just as you are right now and be present with whatever you’re experiencing so it can naturally move/release/evolve/shift. Trying to ‘force’ yourself to change won’t induce flow. Feeling your feelings and loving yourself just as you are will.