Going with the flow…

…is a phrase we use, but what does it mean? In my experience it is a sense of ‘not trying’… of being with _(whatever shows up)_, of relinquishing control and letting myself flow-t with the current. This can be a bigger challenge in life than it is in art, but the two are connected (always?!). When I resist the flow in my life, say by taking on too many commitments, which make me tired and resentful – barely able to even notice the flow, let alone be tapped into it, then my art will reflect that energy. For that is what it’s like: when I’m ‘tapped into flow’, I feel no resistance. As Jay-Z says below, I become the flow…there is a deep relaxing into ‘what is’… an acceptance. Someone said to me recently that you cannot change what you have not accepted… and I think they’re on to something. Being in the flow can bring us right up to what is true… and not always what we want. (Do I hear someone singing the Stones song at this point?  “You can’t always get what you want….”)

Here are some questions to explore your own relationship with flow…

• how do you define flow in your life? Art?
• is being in the flow connected to acceptance?
• what are the obstacles to flow?
• does your life have enough flow?
• what would that look like?
• image: HOME by andrea bird 42″x18″ encaustic mixed media 2016

Quotes

“Not everything will go as you expect in your life. This is why you need to drop expectations, and go with the flow of life.”

Leon Brown

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“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.  Let reality be reality.  Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” Lao Tzu

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“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”  Henry Wadsworth

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“Feel it, flow with it, infuse with it, believe it.  Time to let the magic begin.” Trudy Vesotsky

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“I am rooted, but I flow.” Virginia Woolf

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“Don’t ever go with the flow. Be the flow.”  Jay-Z

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“If we argue with reality, we are going to lose every time.”  Daniel Beirne

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