How to Embrace your Flow State

There is a natural flow, a rhythm to life. We can see it in the natural world that surrounds us, how the Winter snow melts to nourish the roots of the trees that later bloom as we settle into Spring.

Nature has a quiet undercurrent that softly speaks her truth. She doesn’t need to strut or shout. She has an unspoken confidence. Nature does not hesitate or second guess her actions. She does not compromise. She is unwavering in her truth and unconcerned with human opinion when it comes to the weather.

We see this rhythmic flow reflected in our own bodies too. We are tied to nature and are part of her rhythmic dance. I find myself drawn into reflection in the cold quiet mornings of the winter and into connection in the warmth of the summer. On a smaller scale, I notice a rhythm within my days, my weeks, and my months. At times, I feel a surge of energy and push forward as I create something new and at other times, I feel drawn within.

I have come to have immense respect for this natural flow and have learned to reframe my idea of accomplishment. It began on a summer evening in Montreal. I was running. . . with a bag of cherries in one hand and birkenstocks on my feet. You might say it wasn’t a planned run. I was going through a painful divorce. I felt lost and I was full of anxious feelings to the point where I could barely sit still. Suddenly, I just needed to run. You need to understand, that I had never run before. Like, ever. I was the girl in gym class during high school who mastered the art of avoiding running. But suddenly in this moment, my discomfort was so intense, that being still in one place was more painful than any other option.

I didn’t even put the cherries down. I just started running. At first, it felt incredibly hellish. I was pushing myself from a place that was outside of myself. I hit that moment, where my body felt like it might break and as I considered stopping, I began to hear the nature that surrounded me. There was this beautiful symphony of crickets, and it captured my attention. Something in me softened and a fierce gentleness rose within me. This is yoga by the way. Pure and simple, it is that moment, when you are suddenly pulled into Presence and Connection. As I listened to those crickets and felt the warm night air on my skin, I gave myself permission to slow down, to run WITH my body instead of against it.

This was the moment, when I truly encountered the beautiful wisdom of embracing the flow of things. I realized that I could breathe in harmony with my body, and I could run to the cadence of my own breath. It was a somatic epiphany. This moment where I was able to connect with my body in a new way and KNOW what it was asking from me. I had a lot of stuck feelings and those feelings needed to move. I ran every day after that for a VERY long time.

I come back to this natural wisdom again and again. Am I in flow with what is in front of me today? Am I in harmony with my body? Am I moving WITH?

I find that after two years of pandemic life, everything feels like it is moving so much faster. To find my flow in this reality, the truth is that there are things that at times, I need to put down. I can’t do it all and if I am being honest, I don’t really want to anymore. I choose spaciousness. For me, moving with, being in flow with what my body is communicating, dropping into connection with myself and being present to what I am doing, where I am and who I am with; that is the accomplishment that I am looking for.