It's like the fella who falls off a cliff and catches himself by one thin vine. He's hanging off the cliff now with no way to get back up. "Help!" he yells. "Is there anybody up there?" He hears a voice, the voice of God beside him, saying "I'm here. Let go". The man pauses then yells again...."Is there anybody ELSE up there?"
Focus on Spiritual Wellness: Distancing the Manifestation
It was a day like any other, and I was just doing a normal thing....I was getting groceries at the supermarket. One moment shifted my awareness of how life could be, if I lived in the flow of it rather than always pushing upstream toward the future or spiraling downstream toward the past or sitting stagnant in my thoughts of what to do with my present moment.
I came out with my groceries and put them in the trunk of my car. I turned to head back into the store to put the cart back in it's rightful place when I saw a smiling woman to my left. She was going into the store and said "take that for you?" and, without slowing her step or adjusting her trajectory into the store in any way, she took the cart just as it left my hands and I turned, almost like I was dancing, and swirled back toward my car and got in, saying "thank you" over my shoulder as I turned.
As I put my key in the ignition, I stopped. I realized in that moment that what I had just seen exampled for me, by this unknown woman, was life in the flow of life. It was a Sacred Moment for me.
On the surface, it was not that big a deal. She saved me about a minute of time and effort by taking the cart. However, as I sat there with my hand on my car keys, I realized something profound. I realized that this was not a one-time occurrence for her. She had to live that way, or she would have missed the moment.
What if every moment were lived in the flow?
I wondered what life would be like if every moment were in the flow for me?
If I had done what I normally do, I'd have been so focused on getting the cart back, getting in my car, getting home, getting my groceries in the house....etc. that I would not even have been able to release the cart.
That day, for whatever reason, I allowed the universe to assist me and her. She got a cart she needed in the flow of her trip and I released the one I no longer needed in mine. And we both got these gifts of support without veering an inch from our path or missing a beat in the exchange.
Is it possible that entire days could be lived like that? And what if every person lived liked that? What kind of world would we see blossom in front of us within a day of every person surrendering to universal flow?
I began to notice myself as I moved through my day and encountered other beings. The next time I was in the supermarket, I kept myself aware of moments to be in the flow rather than against it in some way. It wasn't so easy.
For example, I saw a man walk up who only had one or two items and I had a thought that I could let him get in front of me but by the time I had that thought, he was almost past me and it was awkward to say. I turned, and watched him walk to the next line and knew I'd missed a moment by being my head about it.
This living in the flow isn't something that can be thought about ahead of time. It is an openness to the moment that must be present in me. It is letting the Universe Flow around me without thinking about my part in it, somehow.
I continue to work with this awareness and am grateful for the woman who so brilliantly demonstrated the power of it. I've consistently seen that, whenever a moment appears and I start to think about what to do about it, I lose it. The opportunity is gone.
How to cultivate living in the flow:
Allowing openness: The openness that precedes, even creates, opportunities for universal support and harmony has to have space in the beingness to develop. It is like any other spiritual discipline. Most don't meditate as deeply at first as they learn to meditate with regular practice.
As I go about my daily tasks, I must practice slowing down and allowing openness to be there.
When I can remember to sit in my car for a moment in stillness, before leaping out and doing whatever it is I'm doing, that stillness creates an openness.
When I can remember to ly in bed, in stillness, for just a few moments before jumping up and getting busy with life, it creates an openness that can align me with universal flow.
Trusting the Images that precede thought: I can also enhance my ability to be in the flow by responding to pictures, not words. Back to the example with the man in the supermarket, I saw an image of myself letting him in front of me before I made words about it in my head. It was complete in the image and I could have trusted that, but I got my mind involved and it jammed up the flow of universal energy.
Establishing intent to be in the flow: I believe that a person's spiritual intent establishes how Spirit will work with them so I also am setting my intent to be in the flow of life and allow the universe to support me while also allowing the universe to put me in position to support others.
In one of the multitude of selfhelp books I read in my earlier years, one of them said (and I'm paraphrasing) that someone in the world has exactly what we need or want, whatever it is, and vice versa.
Someone, somewhere, is waiting for us, wanting to give what they no longer need or have in surplus. We just need to connect with the person who is waiting to support us in our dreams or goals.
Perhaps, cultivating this openness of being in the flow of life may be a magic door that more widely opens that connection to whatever we need in any given moment. In fact, it doesn't even feel like need anymore. It's a positive exchange of energy between two beings that is in universal support of both of them.
What if I respond to a moment and it's the wrong thing?
This is a fear that must be also allowed to be in openness. Fear stops universal flow or distorts it.
I saw this clearly when I lived in Los Angeles and was around the homeless community a lot. I often had the impulse to help but would be stopped by fear. I think it was smart to stop because fear would have attracted more of itself and I may have drawn a dangerous person to offer support.
However, looking back on it, I see that the fear sprang from my mind. It took root in that one moment before extending a sandwich or money, that one moment when I questioned. I see further it was magnified by all the other people who had hesitated in the presence of this Divine Being of Light that had no physical home at the moment. That homeless person I thought about reflected back to me the fear that they saw so often in others like me.
If I had known about this flow factor then, I may have just flowed through the homeless in such a way that I would naturally connect with those who were ready for receiving and I also would have known what to give.
Like any other facet of spiritual development, I believe we must extend loving kindness and patience to ourselves as we grow. I am grateful for this awareness in me and will continue to allow it to develop.
Statement of Spiritual Intent: The information contained in this spiritual healing article is not meant to replace the spiritual knowing of any other. Nor is it presented for debate. It is simply a sharing from my heart and my awareness, given for edification and education.