How To Create Relaxation and Flow in Your Life...
Doing the Personal Work
Hey there, hi there, ho there, my fine-feathered (or not-so-feathered) friends! Happy Thursday! I hope you are finding things to appreciate and enjoy in your day. For me today, it was a lovely piece of dark chocolate that melted in my mouth and having time for a glorious nap before sitting down to write.
Today we’re considering how to create relaxation and flow in our lives. The hint I’ll offer is this: Be like Water. You’ll have to read on to get the full scoop. Before that, though, we need our daily dose of Inspiration!
Today’s Inspiration: We all need to see the good that is constantly happening in our world, so we have a round-up of inspiring stories from the KarunaNews website. KarunaNews | Responding with Compassion. The links take you to a short summary and offer the option to read the entire story. (They aren’t all new, but they are all compelling and connected.)
Making Cities Healthier, One Schoolyard And Green Space At A Time (karunanews.org)
Ireland's Oldest Woman Shares Her Secrets To Enjoying Life On Her 109th Birthday (karunanews.org)
Today’s Probing Question: How can you create relaxation and flow in your life?
This has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve been trying to figure out a new way of moving through life, one without stress and tension. One where I’m calm and able to move with whatever happens, to dance with life.
There has been a lot of useful information in this regard in my Qi Gong training. For those who don’t know, Qi Gong is a movement practice, much like Tai Chi, that comes out of the Chinese medicine tradition. It is about cultivating life force energy (and much more).
One of the teachings that has had the most impact for me is the idea that while we cannot control outside events, we can control what happens inside ourselves. Whether or not we choose to exercise it, we have control over our internal state. That is where the ability to access relaxation and flow reside.
In Qi Gong, Water is one of the Five Elements. All matter (including our bodies) is comprised of different quantities of these Five Elements. (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth.) Each element has a different Superpower that we can unlock for ourselves through the practice and how we carry ourselves through life.
In the Qi Gong practice, the Superpower of Water is relaxation, flowing through life. Instead of holding ourselves with tension and moving through life effortfully, Water offers us a different way to be - fluid and flowing.
My teacher talks about how we can relax when faced with stress and flow with what happens instead of tensing our bodies and minds. Where we have control is inside ourselves, not over external events. So, when we relax and flow, we maintain access to our flexibility and higher faculties.
You may be thinking, “This sounds good, but really, how can I practice this?” If so, read on…
Take Action:
If you want to practice flow and relaxation, I suggest starting a breathing practice that keeps bringing your body back to baseline, back to relaxation. This breathing practice resets the body and helps the nervous system shift from fight/flee/freeze to the rest and digest state.
· It’s a super-simple practice and it goes like this: Four times a day, take two minutes to do long, slow deep breathing. That’s all.
· For extra credit, set an intention to notice when you feel tense, tight or constricted and do two minutes of deep breathing right then. (The beauty of deep breathing is that you can do it anywhere, anytime.)
Bonus Resource: This is a lovely meditation that has you be water through its various states. The Tao Of Flow | Saqib Rizvi, Insight Timer
We can all cultivate the Superpower of Water - relaxation and flow - by using our breath to relax ourselves. I’d love to hear how you create relaxation and flow in your life, whether through breathing or other strategies.
Colleen Osborne is a Coach, Facilitator, Kindness Activist, and Qi Gong Teacher who lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. She is on a mission to Level Up herself and the human species.
With support from Big Fish Virtual Administration.
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