What is “flow”?

When someone says “just go with the flow” what does it mean?

Definition of flow: to issue or move in a stream :  circulate :  abound <a land flowing with natural resources> :  to proceed smoothly and readily :  to have a smooth continuity : to derive from a source.

It certainly does NOT mean to do nothing, to be a dead fish.  And it doesn’t mean, at least in my perspective, to just let things happen to you and to be in a spot of negative anything.

Flow is the stream of energy that is existence.  It is universal.  It comes from God.  It is the source of all that is.  Flowing in that energy is being OPEN to what God inspires you to do.  When you’re “in the flow” things just come easily, burdens aren’t there, fighting and frustration isn’t there … acceptance of what is is there and being inspired in the way to go is there.  It’s easy.  It’s light.  It’s fun.  It feels like you aren’t DOING anything, it’s coming THROUGH you and you are just a conduit for it.

When you’re in the flow, you just know what to do.  It’s obvious.  It almost spills out of you in a way that is miraculous to watch because you see that it is so obviously a connection with God and the Universe that it couldn’t be anything else.

There is beauty in accepting what is.  I mean, it IS what is .. it can’t be anything else.  So what is the point of fighting against it?  That doesn’t change that it is what is.  Acceptance brings peace. 

When my son is throwing a major meltdown tantrum before bed I have 2 choices.  I can accept it or fight it.

Option 1, fight it.

Fighting it would look something like me telling him to, “knock it off, just get in bed, there’s no reason for this, stop it now, I’m tired of the whining and crying, it’s bedtime you must go to bed!”

I’ve done it that way.  It isn’t awesome.  It doesn’t promote a peaceful entrance into sleeping.  It isn’t filled with love.  It is ME fighting against what is, which is, that my son doesn’t want to go to bed.

Option 2, acceptance.

This option is a choice I make.  It has nothing to do with my son … I can’t change what he does.  I can’t control him into wanting to go to bed, I can’t make him see my perspective, he’s 6.  I can ONLY choose how I respond to what he is doing.  And so in this option, I accept that he is not wanting to go to bed.  I ask him why.  He tells me he’s scared.  And as I quietly and calmly deal with what is, the tantrum before bedtime, I enter into the “flow.”  And it inspires me to do JUST what my son needs to be able to go to bed.

I take him upstairs and sit next to him for a few minutes.  We don’t talk about him being scared and why he’s scared and how there’s nothing to be scared of … that just keeps the fear in his focus.  We talk about love. (focus on the opposite of his fear!)  We talk about what he loves to do.  We talk about his favorite memory.  And then he asks me what my favorite memory is and I’m inspired to tell him about when he was born.  And I tell him that story, and he smiles and he is calm and he enters into his nighttime moment with love on his mind.

That is flow.  That is inspiration.  That is acceptance of what is, and then lovingly “healing” the situation.

I have witnessed this principle, this truth, so many times.  I see that as I accept whatever comes in front of me, and I look for ways to heal, to love, to offer peace … I enter into a space that feels like peace, where inspiration comes readily and it’s easy, it’s not a burden, I don’t wonder what to do, I don’t question, it just comes; like a river steadily flowing abundantly in a positive direction.

Look for flow in your life.  Connect to that space within that is there waiting to inspire you to bring more love and beauty and abundant ease into your existence.  It IS there.  You get to choose to connect to it and it comes through accepting what is, and then being open to the inspiration that follows that acceptance.  Peace will be there when you’ve connected … that is how you know.  It will feel easy and it will just “flow” …

I’m sure you’ve had those moments in your life when you’ve felt that flow.  It comes readily when you’re “good” at something … because you’re open to it.  Like being good at piano, or baking, or business, or surfing, or whatever you do … those moments that are easy and just feel like it spills out of you?  Those are FULL of flow and inspiration.

It can come at all times if you’re open and you connect to it.  So look for the peace.  Find that space in every moment where peace is present and that energy WILL flow and it will be easy and it will be fun and amazing and you will acknowledge it and life will take on this beautiful hue that transforms your world.