When something great happens, I sometimes want to hold on to it just that little bit longer. I want to sink in to its delightfulness and stay a while – more importantly, I want to be the one who decides when to let it go. Let’s be honest it could quite possibly be never… Alternatively, when something yucky happens, I’d really like to ignore it, move around it, avoid it, gloss over it – you name it but deep engagement it ain’t.
Seeing these feelings as signals, signs and clues inviting us to pause and explore a bit further, offering us an opportunity of expansion and understanding. It might take time, a few false starts, a sigh or deep breath, an irritation at the timing, but as soon as we engage and examine with curiosity, compassion and openness, the shifts forward can then start to take place.
If we see our lives as a state of flow when we’re aligned, it’s seemingly frictionless, easy and joyful, a state of rightness and contentment, progress and purpose. Holding on too tightly, ignoring, avoiding or pretending will feel like friction, blocking this flow until it’s released.
Imagine a big boulder dropped right in the middle of a fast-flowing river – the river could still try and trickle either side but until the boulder is shifted through erosion or movement the full flow of the river will not resume. Likewise, using the clues our feelings give us, we can have the potential to continue to our flow, showing up as our most dynamic, authentic and truest versions of ourselves.
It’s usually not easy and it can be annoying but I like that the signals are there for us to act as guides and prompts. A nudge to consciously choose whether we attend to the boulder today or not.
Love,
Jo x