Don’t Just Go With the Flow, Be Part of the Flow

Tao of Yummi Sutra 20 Bloggy Blog

How do you celebrate each Independence Day? Take time each Independence Day to live into purpose, be mindful in the moment, and celebrate independence for yourSelf. If you’re here, you’ve seen the opportunity, and you’re taking action to establish your own free state of being…from fear and its effect on yourSelf and the world around you. On Independence Day, we pay homage to a belief that “no problem is insurmountable.”

The perspective and belief that “no problem is insurmountable” has inspired and sustained changemakers throughout history. Where would you be today if John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and the American Revolutionaries gave up in the face of overwhelming odds? Where would you be today if Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement believed they faced an insurmountable problem? You would be living a very different reality if any of those beings became attached to fear and got carried away from living into purpose.

Your authentic Self is an expression of the Universe. There is no situation in which you do not have value to offer. It is not the problem that stops us…it is an attachment to fear that carries us away from creation of the authentic value that is ours’ to give.

It takes all of us, working together, to create historic change — but it starts with you.

Life Is Your Gymnasium and Problems Are Your Weights

Your authentic Self is an essential expression of the Universe. You and the Universe unfold together. You have immense value to draw upon, and thus value to give. You begin each day by setting your intention to create value. You are here to help. You live into purpose, are mindful in the moment, and open to the delightful and unexpected. This is your practice. It is also the greatest reward. Your life has meaning and you are consistently realizing that meaning as part of something much larger.

Just as a gym is a place to train and build the strength of your muscles, life is a place to train and strengthen your practice. Just as each workout station in a gym is designed to focus the strength of a muscle group located in a particular area of your body, each problem or issue you face is designed to focus the strength of an area of your practice. Without the gym of life, and the problems and issues you will face, your practice will remain untapped potential. It is the problems and issues you face which allow you to apply your practice and grow towards Mastery.

Why do you pursue Mastery? Mastery is not pursued as a notch for the belt of your ego. Attainment of Mastery is realization of your potential for the benefit of all. You apply the practice to add value, which makes our world a better place in both large and small ways. The more powerful your practice, the more consistently you create impact.

Living into purpose is an orientation towards creating value. Your life is fraught with opportunities to apply your value creative abilities. This application creates your beautiful life.

Who You Are Can Equal Who You Want To Be

Who are you? Who do you want to be? You deserve to have the same answer to each of these questions. You don’t need to look elsewhere. Everything required is already here. What you must do is open to it. The first step is acceptance of your authentic nature.

In each moment, you can choose to create value. You can also choose to engage with fear and let it carry you away…to become angry, jealous, anxious, isolated, or any of a host of other fear-based emotions — which come from a place of feeling ‘less than’ in some way. This is an illusion. When you accept yourSelf as an essential part of the Universe, you open to a realization that you can never be ‘less than’. Which path do you choose?

Don’t beat yourSelf up in the current moment for what has occurred in the past. The past is done. Why attach to the past and distract yourSelf? The current moment is the real opportunity.

Hesitate and the moment will pass…but the good news is that the next moment becomes ‘now’. Any direction you turn is forward. What you face is the opportunity.

Although planning can and should be done to prepare, there is no reason why we cannot be mindful of the current moment and open to the delightful and unexpected as we plan.

The only time that is real is the current moment. This simplifies the choice of a time to start. The time is now. Create value. Live into purpose in ways both large and small.

Fight the Fear, Not the People

The Universe is unfolding in a benign to benevolent way. Why should you have faith in this? There are no barriers between any part of you and the fabric of the Universe. Accept that you are an essential part of this fabric. You and the Universe unfold together. There is no ‘other shoe’ waiting to drop, anymore than rain waiting to fall. It all simply ‘is’. You are here to help. In each moment you face another opportunity to build on the deep authentic value you have come to create.

With each opportunity you take to create value, you create more of your beautiful life and live into purpose. As you live into purpose, you witness your integrity and learn to love yourSelf more because there is more you can see that you love. As you love yourSelf more, you are able to love others more, because you realize the deep authentic nature they share with you.

There are those who have attached to fear for so long that they interact with the world through the lens of fear. You will witness fear, anxiety, anger, jealousy and the host of fear based emotions in people. They are not your enemy. Fight the fear, not the people.

Events carry you to a place you cannot predict and should not try to expect. Expectations are attachments that carry you away from mindfulness in the current moment. With mindfulness, you open to the delightful and unexpected. Doing ‘the work’ is what guides both your personal and professional life. You go where the Universe sends you…which is also where you send yourSelf. Have faith in the current, it goes in your direction.

Do You Choose to Struggle?

How do you want to use your time and energy? You can choose to live in the flow of the moment, or you can choose to struggle. Both you and the Universe will unfold moment by moment anyway, but it is up to you whether or not you use energy resisting the flow.

Ocean swimmers know: when you get caught in a riptide, you have two choices. You can (1) attach to fear, struggle against the tide and wear yourSelf out, or (2) relax and flow with the tide, then utilize your energy to swim safely back to shore.

Problems are opportunities for change. You can shape that change through the authentic value that is yours’ to give. You must embrace change as part of life, although you will not always understand the implications of the change you face.

Change will trigger emotions. These are authentic and should not be ignored. You distract yourSelf and cannot be mindful in the moment when you detach from, or ignore, authentic emotion. Likewise, once you have become mindful of the emotion, you can distract yourSelf by attaching to that emotion. Do not hide from emotion or let it carry you away. Instead, regard emotion as a signal. You can be mindful of the signal and then devote your energy to creating value.

You can do ‘the work’ of your personal and professional life in each moment, or be distracted and carried away from your ability to do ‘the work’ of yourSelf and the Universe. It’s your choice how to use your energy. You can struggle or create value.

Metabolize the Fear to Free YourSelf

Sustainable serenity isn’t about removing yourSelf from the problems of everyday life. It’s about developing the ability to welcome life moment by moment. You can become porous, like the colander you use to wash fruits and vegetables, and allow problems to flow through you. Non-attachment and meditation take you one step beyond ‘going with the flow’, to a practice of allowing yourSelf to become part of the flow.

Armor is the opposite of porous. It is designed to stop slings and arrows before they touch you — but it blocks everything else from touching you as well. When you detach from or ignore problems, you effectively don armor that blocks your full experience of life. When you are open and naked in facing problems and fears, you become more porous. Rather than blocking or ignoring problems and fears, allow them to flow through you. Metabolize the dark unconscious. Transform whatever’s of value to fuel and allow the rest to flow out. Just as you metabolize food to grow strong, you can metabolize fear.

The way of the master is effortless not because the master doesn’t make an effort. It’s because the master is open, facing each problem as an opportunity. The master has faith that the current moment carries us towards the next opportunity. The master is, above all, porous. Life flows through the master like water through a colander or food through your body. All paths lead to another, more experienced, more practiced version of you…one moment, one week, one month, one year, one decade from now. You are always becoming more yourSelf. Metabolize fear to free yourSelf.

Faith!