Finding Your Flow

Your heart knows the way, run in that direction. – Rumi

It’s that moment when your chest feels like it’s going to burst or you sit in quiet beauty by a river or in a garden, and feel totally at peace with yourself or that warm comfortable moment under your covers at the start or end of the day when you just know that it’s all good. You get that sense that you are part of a beautiful world where peace and harmony are always on hand.

In those moments, you are really at peace with yourself, there are no decisions to make. Things are so clear that no thought is required on which option to take, which direction to head. You have time, space and all the clarity you need to live your ‘Best Life’.

These are great times. Times when you know everything is going right, you are confident, great opportunities come at you thick and fast. It’s a place full of energy, you have great ideas, you are creative and guess what? It’s all coming together. You could call it luck, but you know deep down that it was all going to happen this way. All of these situations are times when you are at your best, a place that sports psychologists and TV commentators call your ‘A-Game’.

Where gratitude fills me for what I feel and who I am in that moment. No affirmations or positive thinking required – thank you! I’m sure you’ve been like that too … remember it? Isn’t it wonderful?

When you’re playing your A-Game you just can’t lose! Well guess what? You can never lose.

Sure there are times when you feel like you are losing; like nothing is going your way and then you think that it’s all going to go horribly and permanently wrong.

These pains you feel are messengers, listen to them. – Rumi

I used to search, almost maniacally, for my holy grail. I was looking for an ‘elevator button’ to take me to the wonderful views of life from the penthouse. The place where I could see the bigger picture of life. Sunlight and blue skies, clear air, calm and impressive. Alternatively, in the lobby, it’s crowded full of people, no sunlight and hard to see where you are going. How great would it be to step into an elevator and press the button for the top floor? My ‘elevator button’ could have been riding my bike, connecting with dear friends, doing my Tai Chi Practice, walking the dog or even reading a great novel. They all qualified, but nothing was reliable. Other times just being with my partner had the opposite effect and it was only when I left the house to do something simple, like drive down the motorway, did my elevator start to rise.

We are human and that means we have good times and bad. Just like the rolling waves in the sea or the sun and rain in the springtime. We get to experience it all. The good news is that after the rain, the sunshine returns. After the crest of the wave, there is always the swell.

Why is that good news? It means that the peace and harmony we look for is only a moment away. No ‘elevator button’ required. If you find yourself in a bad place then know that if you just ride through it you’ll be riding the crest of the wave again soon enough.

In my life I’ve sailed yachts in seas where the waves seemed, and sometimes were, way bigger than the boat. I wondered if we would capsize or be deluged, but the wave always passed quietly under the boat. We even surfed off the crest of those waves with very little effort. It was magical! 99.9% of the time life is just that.

Have you ever had something you’ve really been dreading? Maybe it’s your tax return deadline? Maybe there is some family or relationship issue that you are really worried about? Maybe it’s a fear of failing or letting someone down? Think about an experience like this that you have had. How did it go for you? I’ll bet it turned out much better than you expected, didn’t it? Just like the yacht, your ‘wave’ passed by and you coped with it much better than you’d thought possible. Even in the unlikely event that you ‘capsized’ you are still here to tell the tale. There! Aren’t you amazing?

And all the stress you put yourself under in those situations. Don’t our thoughts go ten to the dozen about everything that could happen, should or shouldn’t happen. Was it ever warranted?

Lord Tennyson said of finding motivation, “I sit down to write at 9:30 every day and my inspiration arrives at 9:35!” However talented a writer he was, I’m sure he had his off days, just like the rest of us.

So there’s something even bigger at play, a superpower we all have to hand, available to us at all times – I call it the ‘T-Game’ (The Trust game).

Back to my TV commentators for a moment … if you were watching tennis on TV you’d see a player hit the first serve and second serve very differently. On the first serve he can give it everything and go for the win. That’s the A-Game. If he misses, no biggie he gets another go. The shot he makes on the second attempt, when he is under pressure and needs to work the percentages, is just as well played but in a totally different way. It’s his T-Game; perfect for the situation he’s in and there to take him into a more positive place where he can go for the win once again. T for Trust. Trust that you are enough — because you are always enough.

There is a voice that doesn’t use words, listen. – Rumi

At all times you have the capability and the resources you need. Your intuition never deserts you. Even when you are totally in the grip of some circumstances that seem to be ‘rocking your world’ you always have your T-Game to serve you.

Even when things don’t feel like they are going well, you have at your disposal the ability to make the right decision, do the right thing and come through it better than you would ever have thought possible. Take today. As I write this I’ve had a very difficult twenty-four hours. My personal values have been sorely tested and yet I’ve done business and done it well. I’ve stayed focussed and written this piece when I could have been highly distracted by the circumstances that surround me. Yes, the T-Game Rocks!

But don’t we always feel more fulfilled when we are going for it? Using all our life given talent? The thing that works for me here is to relax, take it easy, just like the tennis player composing himself between games. I can rest back into the harmony of life, like sinking into a lovely warm bath. Then, I come back fresh and see whether my A-Game has returned. It might not happen straight away but I know that it will sooner or later and that’s when life gets really fun!

Like a top professional tennis star, you have your A-Game and your T-Game to serve you at all times. You are a complete player in the game of life. You are ready and fully able to ride the waves and the swell of life with no stress and sympathy for the prevailing weather that gets you to your destination every time. Know you are the captain of your own ship, one that’s unsinkable, and when you know this you can be satisfied that whatever the weather, you’ve got it covered.

by Julian Freeman at upliftlove.com