Dangling the carrot

The last weekend of classes felt like the sprouting neurons got a dose of fertilizer! After our deep discussions about vitality, body and self, pedagogy (I am really liking this word) and flow, I had a mind flash of how dogs feel when they inhale their food, lick their lips and look at us with those big brown eyes asking for more! Our Prof has this unique ability to ‘dangle the carrot’ at us and then invite us to come and get it. And, we go chasing after it! Wha up with that!!! 

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.