How Bendy Are You?

(c) 2012 Joan Newcomb

Imagine you are paddling your kayak down a swift moving river.  The ride is exhilarating, as you skillfully weave around rocks and through rapids.  You have to be highly alert and focused, yet intuitive as well, as you adjust your position in the kayak and your grip on your paddle to stay upright and afloat.

Now imagine if you remained rigid, and tried to keep to one kind of oar stroke or rowing pace (I'm not a kayaker, but you get the drift).  The river isn't going to change for you, my friend.  That rock isn't going to leap out of the way.  Those rapids aren't going to settle down for you to coast on by.

Life comes at you in ways you can't always premeditate.  You can gather up a certain amount of experience before hand, but it's still an improvisation, not a set script.  It requires flexibility and creative thinking.

The energy that flows is more multidimensional than river water.  You're moving through it with your entire body.  There are currents of emotion emitting from individuals or groups, there are pools of energy in the Cosmic Consciousness.  Rigidity gets you stuck in an eddy where you can spend entire lifetimes going round and round and round on one issue.

There's a master meditation technique where you can let the energies pass through you, as if you were a Body of Glass.  It's effortless, but not easy.  I think of it as relaxing and separating your molecules, so the negative energy flows through.  You can imagine yourself in an Invisibility Cloak, ala Harry Potter, or visualize wind through a screen door.

Another technique is kind of an Energetic Aikido.  When someone or something comes at you that you resist, you can simply step aside, like a toreador with a bull, and let them/it charge by.  You don't have to engage or change their thinking.  If you give your energy in opposition, you can get stuck in a dance with them that benefits neither of you.

This week, look at how you're moving through life.  What are you at ease with?  What do you resist?  Try Energy Aikido, Body of Glass or Invisibility Cloak throughout the next 7 days and see what happens!