A personal exploration of the common saying by Emily Johnson
I’m feeling compelled, almost forced, to write about this particular topic right now.
The past 12 months have been a myriad of epic highs and super lows and having to truly learn how to ‘Go with the Flow’ – but even just writing it, saying it out loud, annoys me.
Here’s why…
Generally speaking, we hate what we don’t understand, it drives us crazy, and our daily lives are a constant flow of things being thrown our way unexpectedly. I’ve never totally understood what it really means to ‘go with the flow’, it seems like something someone would say to you when they can’t really be bothered handing out any further, deeper insights on your problem.
Like most things I don’t fully understand, I’ve researched it, written about it, talked about it with friends and themed classes all week about it, in the hopes I can learn the art of ‘going with the flow’, lock it away and practice it forever. Here’s what I’ve learnt;
Learning to live life with all of its constant ups and downs, hot and cold, sad and happy, is bloody challenging BUT what is challenging is almost always worth it.
When we practice yoga, we are presented with constant challenges, asked to use our breath, mindfulness and sense of calm to stay connected and present to what we are doing without getting caught up, annoyed or give up where we are. As we know, yoga is a practice, a practice for what we need to do off the mat, the real deal, out in the world.
So even just consider when we are practicing, constantly adjusting or shifting to try and make things feel just right, are we perhaps doing ourself a disservice? Can we stay for an extra moment, breath, or stick it out to the end. See what follows next…
It’s almost always in the moments we are about to give up, throw in the towel and walk away that something magical is about to happen.
Perhaps the art of ‘going with the flow’ is just trusting the process, learning to be okay with discomfort and understanding that each moment can be a blessing in disguise, feel what you need to but learn what you have to and move on to the next challenge, because there will be another, and the cherry on top is to always try to practice joy and gratitude for the moment your in right now.