Going With The Flow : A Mighty River

By Steve Mills

This is part one of a series about “Going With the Flow”

There is a lot written on personal development blogs about the concept of “going with the flow.” I am sure most Rebel Zen readers have encountered this term many times during their internet wanderings, and that you have heard many different takes on what it means. Here at Rebel Zen, we aren’t ones to get too hung up on definitions. What I am more interested on is different perspectives on the one idea. So in that spirit, here is one take on the idea of “Going with the Flow”

 

BIG FLOW : Life Flow

We quite often get to a point in our lives where things get out of control. This can be a major source of anxiety and stress for a lot of people, as they feel that they are constantly fighting against the world for control of their situation in life and circumstances.

Others however, learn to “go with the flow.” They realise that you can NEVER have 100% control of your life circumstances, and anything could happen in the next 5 years, weeks, days or minutes which could completely change things.

The metaphor for this is of sitting in a canoe on a raging river. The river is your life, and the direction it flows is the combination of all of the forces and factors of your everyday existence. All is not lost to the hands of fate, because in your hand  you have a paddle. This paddle is your own goals, intentions and actions.

While I cannot, no matter how hard I try, change the way that the water is flowing, I can paddle myself away from obstacles, or learn to turn my canoe in just the right way to avoid capsizing when things get rough.
Along the stream of life there are parts of the river that you want to visit, and parts full of dangers that you want to avoid at all cost.  I have found one of the ways to get a big, powerful paddle is by having a super clear, laser focused direction. Good Old Curlys Law in practice

In order to know which way to paddle, you need to have Awareness of the direction of the stream. Meditation, or taking some time out from the day to day routine is important, as it allows you to detach slightly from the flow of the River of Life,  and stand on the safe river bank.

From there you can look at things in perspective of the greater picture. Step beyond yourself and see how the actions you make today affect tomorrow.