Art of Going with the Flow

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You’ve heard the saying – go with the flow…and its usually when you are frustrated because nothing is unfolding as you expected. Maybe you are forced to wait for a group of strangers but ultimately, they become your lifelong friends.

When the door of expectation closes, another always opens, and it can lead to opportunities you’d never imagined for yourself.

The Flow Fosters Growth

When we come to understand the flow, we can see that it is always about growth and opportunity. It has no interest in protecting your comfort zones.

Let’s look at the flow in nature as it moves through time and space in a symbiotic way. We can observe how it conserves the water supply as snow and ice in the mountains. When it is most needed and like clockwork, it will melt and flow into the valleys below.

The warm waters of the tropics are gathered into storm clouds and the flow carries them all the way to the forests on the other side of the earth. It moves as jet streams, fronts and weather patterns. It balances temperatures in a way that is conducive to life on earth.

The Flow is Life's Interconnectivity

And it shows us the bigger picture of life’s inter-connectivity. Once the trees receive water, they can break apart the molecules to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. Nothing is left out of nature’s drive toward abundance and growth, and you are a part of nature.

We can watch it in the sunrise, as it ignites a chain reaction of abundance that will spread across the earth and trigger the carbon cycle. It keeps planets in orbit through gravity, and literally makes the world go round.

From the vast reaches of the universe to the very ground beneath your feet, the flow can remind you that life has an inclusive plan for each and everything it creates.

The Flow is an Energy Field

Just as it regulates temperatures on the earth – you shiver and sweat without even thinking about it. But the flow is doing more than regulating your temperature – your body is also sharing atoms with the environment as it rebuilds your cells.

It isn’t so much that you learn to go with the flow. You learn to stop fighting against it. The flow will take you where you need to go, and the journey is much easier and more fun when you let it take you.

Going with the flow is like opening your sail to harness the wind. It is, full of abundance and it is always there, nurturing your growth. If you don’t believe me – just try holding your breath.

It is part of the flow.

The Flow is Purposeful

The art of going with the flow is a way of reading the weather behind your experiences. Storms release old growth, and conflict can teach you how to let go. In any storm, plants supple enough to bend – are the ones that endure. And like a flower in a parched landscape, sometimes a little rain is needed to water your inner garden.

But the mind has its own ideas and believes it is in control of what unfolds. We take responsibility for our successes, and blame events for our failures. But going with the flow means to become present in the present, to become the guest of how life has been caring for you since the day you were born.

Beyond Mindfulness is Abundance

Being mindful allows you to take responsibility for what you are learning through each encounter. But going with the flow is more than mindfulness – it is a way of connecting with life’s larger flow of abundance. It is better to remain open and supple because any obstacles that impede life’s picture of growth will be torn down.

You lose your connection to the flow when you embroil with your own ideas of where you should be. It is as if you are focused on becoming, rather than just simply being who you are.

To become present in the present allows you to settle into a sense of beingness where you can enjoy the beingness of everything around you. This moment is real – and this moment is all there is.

The Flow is Joyful Discovery

Learning to go with the flow allows you to settle into joyful discovery. All the energy wasted in your flailing and fighting can be activated into your blossoming.

Authenticity grows from your inner garden. When there is nothing to defend and nothing to block it – life’s abundance flows through you.

Defensiveness is how you protect past ideas, but going with the flow is usually about releasing them. Not that you stop doing or stop taking action – you just stop taking action that goes against the flow.

In other words, where you are is much more important than where you are going.

Nature expresses itself through interaction. From the wind in the trees, to how light moves from the sun to the earth…from photons to photosynthesis, to the water and carbon cycle, nothing is left out of life’s interconnectivity.

Because you cannot see the tapestry of connections that surround you – you may have difficulty trusting where the flow might lead you. But even while you sleep, it drives the machinery of your wellness.

Chaos as the Emerging Face of Change

You observe chaos and believe you need to fix it, when it is just the face of emerging change. After any storm, it’s healing potential is revealed. The flow orchestrates wellness and balance by bringing opposite energies together.

When change is on the horizon, it will lead to something better. We know this because life has been creating something better – well…for billions of years.

Being in flow is a way of achieving spontaneity. The difference is learning to respond without reacting. Reaction always has an agenda. Spontaneity observes, but holds to nothing as you meet the moment in pure beingness. It is different from the becomingness where you focus on the future.

Going with the flow can transform how easily you say no – by clinging to the past. It is learning to say yes.

When you are in flow, each experience can become a gift. When life calls you into its dance – let go and follow where it might lead you. Like the flow state of the artist, inspiration can blossom within when you open to life’s language of creation. The flow will inspire you – you just have to create the space to let it in.

Rather than strive to overcome the flow, learn to overcome yourself. Like running and how you feel the negative effect of striving and embroiling, as you propel your mass against the force of gravity.

But at some point, you will discover the flow. You’ll find the effortless movement that feels like you could run forever. You have not stopped your action – you have merely let go of the idea that anything is ever working against you.

Being in flow allows you to experience a greater power beyond what you can imagine for yourself. When the mind abates, its illusion of difficulty dissipates.

And you will know you are in flow because you will see that nothing is ever wrong.