The expanded awareness of
health promotion and active living I am experiencing is somewhat obsessional
especially when I have to balance this obsession with two scoops of coconut ice
cream, certified organic of course. We talked about our vitality signature;
walking patterns, footsteps, laugh etc., and of course I started wondering what
my signature was. I need some help with this one so please let me know what you
think. My wife’s vitality signature is her laughter. It’s one of those laughs
that’s loud, I mean really loud… sometimes that’s how I find her at Costco,
laughing with strangers! Her laugh makes me laugh, not because I am laughing at
her, but because it’s coming from her soul, it’s genuine and happy, it lights
up the space around her and if you look really carefully you’ll see energy
packets everywhere, her laugh is contagious. Is this what the ‘contagion of
things’ feel like when we get caught up in the events of things.
Another
observation is her ability to experience ‘flow’. Like a fish in the water she
will swim with the dolphins, and dive with the whales all with incredible
patience killing time as I doggie paddle towards shore. Now, about her driving,
hummm… how should I say this, very safe and courteous, with a flare of
assertiveness that keeps her flowing with the traffic. The journey at times
feels like I’m on the Nascar tracks counting the laps down. Most times I just
adjust my glasses to ‘very blurry’. However, when she does her yoga practice her
ease of going into Paschimottanasana is as effortless as a feather falling from
the sky.
The
notion of flow is exciting for me as I begin to observe myself, and others, in
daily life. I thought about how Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as
an experience of intense and focused concentration, merging of action and
awareness, a loss of reflective self consciousness, personal control, altered
time experience and feeling rewarded. These characteristics of flow is also
associated with skill level and challenge, the higher the challenge and skill
level required the more one is in the flow. When I think of flow I think of
water. It takes the path of least resistance and when faced with an obstacle water
will find a way around it. Is the obstacle a challenge, and does water need to
develop certain skills to overcome this challenge before it can continue on
with it’s flow? Water can also flow with great force, an event the world
witnessed in the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan. Is that an example of flow meeting resistance resulting in destruction. When I observe the flow of
body and self the magic of movement is evident. Our health depends on flow… on
movement. Air flows into the lungs, blood flows through our vessels, lymph
flows and drains the body of cellular garbage, food flows through the
intestines, joints move to allow us to flow and follow the various scapes
(land, sea, couch) we encounter. Then there are those intangibles, the flow of
thoughts, love flowing from our heart, joy from our being and compassion from
the soul. Can you imagine a life without flow? I found this link of birds
flying in perfect flow. Have a look. I
am looking forward to the next class presentation and to attending the Mane
event.
Namaste
to all
Stay
safe until the next post.
