Don't fight it, feel it

I'm a big fan of 60s soul music and one of my all-time favourite albums is by Sam Cooke, Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963. It's rough, energetic and life-affirming. Cooke's joy in singing is totally infectious - just hearing it will make you wish you were there! The opening track on the album is called "Feel It" and has the line:

"Don't fight it, feel it."

I think that's really good advice to live by...

Think about this for a moment: Does your life always flow easily for you, or do you seem to expend a lot of time and energy resisting change? Have you ever felt like you're virtually dragging yourself along through life, kicking and screaming? I suspect we've all had moments like that!

But it doesn't need to be that hard. The saying: "what you resist, persists" is very true. Sometimes we can really fight the circumstances of life and, in the process, inadvertently make everything much harder than it needs to be. The more you fight a situation, the more you give it energy - so the more it is here to stay.

When you encounter resistance, it's usually an indicator of where you have control issues in your life - and this is about fear. Ask yourself: What is it that you're hanging onto so tightly? What are you afraid of letting yourself experience? What would happen if you let go of this and simply allowed life to unfold?

Allow yourself to be supported...
Sometimes you need to let yourself step outside of your comfort zone, in order to discover that it's possible to experience things in a new - and better - way. It does take courage to surrender yourself to the unknown. It's a leap of faith to trust that the universe will support you... but it always does.

As the poet Guillaume Apollinaire wrote:

Come to the edge, he said.
They said: we are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them... and they flew.

Instead of resisting where the flow of your life is taking you, allowing yourself to "go with the flow" releases powerful creative energy because you're letting yourself be in tune with the true nature of the universe. There is a Divine plan for your life and when you choose to allow it to unfold, you will find that things become easier and more meaningful. Everything falls into place and life is exhilarating instead of exhausting!

Try this for yourself...
So how can you practice letting go and experiencing the flow of life? Well there's a line in a Beatles song that offers a good suggestion. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", written by John Lennon, begins:

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river..."

This makes a wonderful meditation. Next time you're feeling stressed or anxious about a situation in your life, take some time out to relax and imagine that you're in the midst of a beautiful, peaceful landscape. You're lying back in a boat, gently floating down a great, smooth-flowing river. You are right in the centre of the current... and there's no need to steer, because the river is taking care of you, safely and serenely. Simply allow yourself to go with the current... and enjoy the feeling of going with the Divine flow of life...