Tuesday, May 7, 2013

How to keep your life flowing.

Someone once said that if you're going to be a songwriter you'll eventually have to write a song about a river.

I'm not a songwriter but the metaphor of a river isn't lost on me.

A river begins from a source and its raison d'etre is finding a way to a larger more holistic and encompassing source. The journey of a river is the path to oneness and whether we admit it to ourselves or not...becoming whole is the ultimate human accomplishment.

Our lives are like rivers; meandering and occasionally lost, sometimes moving slowly and sometimes with power, intent and passion.  A river will always seek the easiest most efficient route to the source; navigating past obstacles and pooling in difficult spots until it has the power and intent to move ahead.

A river in its full expression is a beautiful thing; flowing, vital, powerful, direct, purposeful. Conversely a river that has become lost is stagnant, searching, confused.

For our lives to be like dynamic rivers we have to keep the flow going, avoiding attributes that slow the flow such as fear, hoarding, jealousy, envy, anger and doubt.

Are you afraid to quit your job and jump into entrepreneurship?
Are you envious of a colleague who appears to be more successful than you?
Do you reject the deserving raise of an employee's salary so you can retain more for yourself?

There's a lot of ways to constrict the flow. The best way to generate the flow of energy in your life is to give away that which you want most.

Do you want to become more successful in your career? Help others become successful through investment, mentorship or emotional support.

Do you want more love in your life? Give it away to strangers on the street via genuine compliments and random acts of kindness.

The popular assumption is that if you want something in life you have to struggle for it,  take it and hold on to it tightly. I don't believe that is so, as hoarding only constrict the flow.

The Buddha once said that everything we need to learn from life we can observe in Nature. A river is the prime example.




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