Flow Is Who We Are: A Universal Truth
Years ago, I found myself struggling with mental health that impacted my relationship with food, being a smoker, using a substances to change my “state” and generally feeling really down. As an early explorer of spiritual practices starting in college, I found some comfort in understanding life from a variety of alternative disciplines which eased my state of mind to some degree, but something inside me felt stuck. And then, I found Breathwork again, having been introduced to it briefly in 1994, and it was through that experience that something began to open up for me.
What opened was greater access to myself, and the one universal flow that moves through us all. This doorway to my own personal freedom invited me to access my own “felt sense” of myself through my own deep breathing and move through difficult and emotions and unprocessed experiences without moving away from them. Only then, was I able to access the true power of breath that lives within us all- and live more from this loving self-generative resource.
A few weeks ago, while traveling in Arizona, I had the opportunity to be a Guest Speaker on a Seasonal Cleanse call offered by a colleague of mine Genell Huston. On the call, I revisited this early personal transformative shift and shared about what that meant to me to access that true flow state available within us all.
The discussion reminded me of the value of unraveling shared limiting beliefs so that we can all open up to how unbelievably powerful and radiant we are.
The reality is- flow, like the Breath, is universal. We all have access to the one universal flow that exists within us all. And this flow and breath are eternal- and not at all particular as to where and how they move through. Flow is ultimately, our natural state.
When we are born we are tapped into this and it shows up in our breathing as an open, flexible, adaptive system. Our breath, most often, at this stage is changeable, fluid, mostly diaphragmatic, rhythmic and open.
This state can sometimes be felt as children, too, during certain moments- like swinging on a swing, riding a bike, playing with a friend, being in nature. True untethered freedom.
But many adults rarely tap into experiencing this inherent flow state within us all- though certainly many are seeking for it and sometimes in unhealthy ways.
What I discovered in my own self journey of discovery back then, was that underneath all of the stored challenges of my life that were left unprocessed, was a deeper felt sense of myself that felt so complete and whole and so free flowing, that it kept me wanting to open up more to this experience and embody it.
Breath is flowing within us all right now. Flowing through us. We are all being breathed by a universal force that is far greater than our minds can comprehend. We are even sharing molecules of air with billions of species with each breath- as we, too, are a living breathing flowing life force alive on this planet.
And while there is nowhere to go or leave in order to experience this state, we often do need some help clearing the runway to experience the flow that is right here and eternal for us all.
Patterns of limiting beliefs, unprocessed hurts or resentments, built up emotions unexpressed can get in our way of experiencing the open, free flowing breath of life happening now.
But the beauty of the journey is that there really is no where to go outside of ourselves to access the flow state that is within ourselves. We just need to take the courageous leap to face this one breath, this one self that is waiting here and now for our unfolding attention and love.