Flowing It

Flowing It

“Resistance is Futile” or at the very least, a strange occupation. We can burn a lot of energy; psychic, emotional, and physical, in the act of resisting, and not gain a thing.

Resistance comes about when we say “no” to what is.

“What is” comes about through our thoughts. The attitudes we bring, our beliefs, our focuses, color the world we see. When I am focused on my foot, I will not be paying much attention to the lovely smell in the air. When I believe life is hard, I will miss all the little blessings that float in and through my days. When I focus on “no,” I miss a lot of opportunities to say “yes.”

When I believe that things happen to me, rather than for me, I am pretending that I am not responsible for my life, my well being, my happiness.

Why can I choose? What makes me enjoy? How am I aware?

Many of us mislearn that things happen to us. We can’t imagine that there is a gift in the occurrence. That feeling, of stuff happening to us, can make us feel out of control, and scared. So we respond to that by trying to control our outside circumstances, our loved ones, and communities. It takes a huge amount of effort, and doesn’t really get us very far.

When I choose to believe that things happen for me, that there is always a gift, sometimes a very profound gift, I open to my life. I recognize that I have enormous control over the quality of my experience, all through my mind, my thoughts, my ideas.

This means that as my life unfolds, I am interested in what is happening. I am curious about the lessons to be learned, I am excited by the hunt for the gift. I say, “Oh, this is how life is now,” and get on with things. Resistance is absurd.

What makes me decide? Why am I positive? How do things go my way?

I choose to believe that it can all be just so easy.

That doesn’t mean I never have discomfort, that means I flow with my discomfort, I don’t put emotional weight on it, whatever kind of discomfort it might be. I choose to soften, I choose to relax, I choose to trust. I remember to breathe, I remember to choose awareness, I act mindfully.

I may put my focus deep into the discomfort, but it is lightly, without negative emotional judgment. I may choose to pay attention to anything but my discomfort, not pretending it away, just not feeding it with my focus.

Why could it all be just so easy?

When I take responsibility for my life, I get to choose. I get to decide if I will suffer or enjoy. I get to decide if I will open my heart, or harbor resentments. I get to decide if I will make things easy or make things hard.

How have I changed from fighting it to flowing it?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 06132014

The Folly of No

The Folly of No

I love the concept of fixed delusions. We all have ‘em, weird ideas about how the world is that are totally normal and rational as far as we are concerned but weird as all get out to other people if we were to say them out loud.

Thing is, because they are delusions, we don’t know they are there. Ain’t that a kick in the pants!

Perhaps now is the time to root them out.

Once you learn the trick for spotting your fixed delusions, it is easy to recognize them, even if you may not believe they are wrong.

Look for your personal “no!” An example for me showed up today when I pulled the money card and read the back, “You have always easily managed all of your resources.” Whew! Clearly, I still have some fixed delusions around resources.

When we hear something about how nice life is, and we get a strong NO!, we have found a fixed delusion. The bigger our NO! the stronger the delusion.

The NO! might come as the word “no” but it can also come as a jerking backwards, or a grimace, or something else. It feels like a shove away, or a pull back from.

Sometimes we get that NO! when we are confronted on our behavior, or beliefs.

We can have them about anything from our health to our family, work relationships or tasks, romance, food, fitness, happiness, sleep. If it’s a part of our lives, we can be deluded about it.

When we encounter a fixed delusion, we may react with resistance. Resistance, now there’s a bizarre topic. The lengths we will go to resist something can be astonishing. One of my beloved teachers said that she had clients who suffered heart attacks and strokes, and even died to avoid dealing with their fixed delusions. It’s a serious thing.

So with a big topic like that, how to we get from NO! to peaceful and relaxed?

Creative Questions to the rescue! Take my “no” from this card. I can turn that statement into a Creative Question easily; “Why do I always manage my resources easily? How am I competent with all my resources? What makes me use my resources wisely?”

Sometimes, just asking the question will make the resistance lessen. If it doesn’t, I can use the words “would” or “could” to soften the question; “Why would I always manage all my resources easily?”

Turning our NO! into a yes is one of those well-worth-the-effort things. Life doesn’t flow when we are full of “no.” It’s so much easier to be aware, to trust, to relax, when we address our NO!.

How have I changed from resisting to allowing my life to flow?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 01082014