I love the changing of the seasons. It’s always a reminder to ‘go with the flow’. I hear so many people complaining of the cold and the long dark days here (and even people in South Africa would complain about the cold and dark even though we had fairly short, sunny winters in Johannesburg – it seems to be a human condition to complain).
I used to be one of those complainers 😊. Then I learnt to live in the moment, and be present with what is, and to be aware of where I am focusing my energy and thoughts, and realized the truth of the saying, ‘energy flows where attention goes”. It ties up with the saying ‘what you resist, persists’. These have become clichés, perhaps but they are great mental prods for remembering bigger truths about life. Resistance can be good for us when we want to build muscle and we push weights, but mental resistance causes our bodies to go into a state of unhealthy stress and tension ( the state of fight, flight or freeze.) When we resist something, our bodies go into contraction, our breath gets more shallow, and our mind tends to focus on that one thing. It becomes a single-minded focus – even an obsession .
Think about it for a moment. Think of something you really dislike (perhaps the cold and dark winter). What happens to your breath, your mind, the feeling in your chest, what does your heart rate do, and your muscles? Does everything feel like it gets shorter, tighter, and closing in?
Now, when you take your focus off that thing that you dislike and you intentionally breathe deeper and think about accepting it (after all, winter is going to happen, whether you like it or not, right?), and you turn your attention onto softening your body, and thinking about something you really like, what happens in your body? Does your breath get easier and more flowing, do you notice your chest space (heart space) relax? Do you feel more relaxation in your muscles, and a greater sense of spaciousness in your brain?
This is the sensation of expansion, and it’s in this state that all our bodily functions and systems can work optimally. Everything can flow, our immune system strengthens, circulation improves, hydration of the tissues is increased, our digestion is better and generally we feel more vital, energized and happy, to move through life with less resistance, and more ease and flow.
It’s a great feeling to be in flow, not resisting anything that comes our way, feeling at ease in our bodies and our minds (they go together), and connected to our full, expansive hearts. Perhaps this is what freedom feels like.
When we are in this state of being, then, wow! Life opens up and magic begins to happen.
So, I invite you to come home to your body. Notice where you are resisting, and let it go, physically and mentally, and see what happens. If nothing else, it’s a fun experiment, and life is a journey, right? We get to choose what we focus on.
(I must point out that I am not saying we shouldn’t acknowledge things that need to be acknowledged. There is so much to talk about on that subject. But when we can take that hard focus off the thing that we are not wanting, things change. Even if it is just a small change in our physiology, like breathing deeper, we are changing something in our world, and heading towards a greater sense of inner peace, which is what we are all ultimately seeking, isn’t it?)
Warm wishes for a blessed winter and warm holidays filled with aloha.
Brenda Loukes-Johnson LMT
Kahuna Bodywork Practitioner and Flow Facilitator
www.alohaflow.net