My Goal To Be In “Flow”

I recently had an epiphany about life and FLOW.

FLOW is one of the goals I have in my life in the second half.

The feeling of FLOW is exhilarating! It can also be a little frightening. Why??? I couldn’t figure it out right away.  An answer started forming over several days.

FLOW is a feeling of no resistance. FLOW can feel overpowering, even overwhelming, but it can feel SO great. Why do I resist?

FLOW in nature is what happens when the dam breaks. We call that FLOW a flood. That is dangerous. It takes down whatever is in its path. What’s in its path are the obstacles we’ve constructed for our safety, for our security, like our homes.

This is the answer to why we resist flow. We resist it while we gaze with longing at it in the distance.

At this age, for me, it’s 70, I have built a life of compartments. My life is COMPARTMENTALIZED; my time is COMPARTMENTALIZED; everything I do and think fits neatly into a bucket.

How I see my life is a metaphor for how I see the world. This is what it means in ACIM (A COURSE IN MIRACLES) when it says the world, the physical body, illness, pain, and suffering are illusions.

The compartments can be as simple as work, play, and rest. The compartments can be even more specialized, and I suspect that for most of us, they are.

Example: Time Compartments: Sleep/Eat/Work/Exercise/Meditate/Study/Play/Chores.

Superimposed over each compartment is a Cultural Conditioning Calendar (heretofore CCC***). Some of the elements of the CCC are M-F, 9-5; Weekend, Holiday, Vacation.

Whether we work full time or not at all, the CCC has power over our minds about these things. We have been programmed for so long that the CCC rules our subconscious. That results in our subconscious ruling how we feel about playing on a weekday (I still hear my peers calling a day of play during the week “playing hooky”!).

Our subconscious rules how we feel about taking a vacation. Do we deserve it? Did we work hard and long enough to earn it?

How about a day off? I recall being coached not to let my clients know I was taking a day off????? Say, WHAT????

I could go on, but I want to get to the solution. I hope I have made a point that makes you think. I hope I have made you aware of something that will help you forge a path to FLOW without resistance….that’s the goal!

I am gradually dismantling the compartments. I’m tearing down the wall of those compartments.

For me, it began with the realization that MY LIFE IS MY BUSINESS. It began with my Living A Well-Integrated Life™ program. At first, even that was compartmentalized. I had a list of the 5 categories of my life that were essential. 1. Spiritual 2. Physical 3. Mental/Emotional 4. Financial and 5. Relationships (with myself and others).

I emerged from the first half of life suffering from an over-emphasis on work and money, with the rest of life relegated to the “when I have time” compartment.

That change took a while and shook things up in a good way. I was finally giving equal importance to each category, some of which hadn’t been attended to in a very long time.

Once that re-structuring had taken hold, I was freer, but still compartmentalized.

I began to visualize the categories as a diagram of 3 consecutive circles with the center as Spiritual, surrounded by ring 2— mental/emotional. On the outer rings were the remaining 3 categories: Physical, Financial, and Relationships.

Not coincidentally, I extended the lines of the 3 outer compartments to the center, it is a PEACE sign. Peace, Inner Peace is my ultimate goal at all times. I know it’s achievable. The obstacle to Inner Peace, like the obstacles to FLOW, is RESISTANCE, and RESISTANCE is caused by the walls of my compartments.

I have the power and the will to tear down the walls.

I am the CEO of my life. I am aware of CCC, and that awareness gives me the power at any moment to exercise my sovereignty. To choose LOVE over FEAR or to choose FORGIVENESS over JUDGMENT.

Each time I make one of those choices, my compartment walls come down. I feel gratitude for my freedom in that moment.

I am breaking out of a self-constructed prison of fear and limiting beliefs.

Whatever happens, I am more resilient. I see the blessing in the challenge. I have more courage to ride the wave. (Maybe Mother Nature “Gaia” is DE-compartmentalizing along with me!).

This is Graceing Agefully™.

***CCC: Cultural Conditioning Calendar is a reference to a subconscious attachment we have to particular days, times, etc.. An example is, we tend to associate Monday morning at 9 a.m. with being “at work” and if we are doing something other than traditional “work”, we have a subconscious pang of guilt. The feeling of guilt becomes a thought which, in turn, colors how we feel about everything we see.

When your life is your business, you make life “work” for you. This awareness is critical to thriving. First, you are aware. Then you begin to dismantle the false walls of your compartmentalized life, if you want to thrive in the second half.

Note to Readers: I am working on a newsletter that will inform my base, both Graceing Agefully™ and my traditional real estate base about the joys of life in the second half. I am calling this phase UP-tirement. RE-tirement is for old people. UP-tirement is for Baby Boomers to start living like they’ve always worked. Your LIFE is your business. Watch for the first edition in your email inbox!