The flow state is a way of surrendering and trusting the benevolent forces of Life. It’s surprising that we don’t spend more time here, as it’s an amazing, creative place to be—magical and peaceful, yet brimming with potential. Flow is a state that’s readily accessible through any activity that captures your effortless focus, such as meditation, dancing, painting, or even taking a shower!
Colette Baron-Reid
The Dream Weaver's Oracle card:
If the River Flows This Way
Co-Creative Mandalas have a vibration that anchors, activates specific qualities, and represents something about ourselves, the natural world, and the energy in the universe at a particular time. This year the mandalas support Aligning with Wisdom,
within mind, body, and spirit,
with the natural rhythms in nature,
and with the Great Mandala.
The mandala archetype for this month is Flow.
It's been fun, illuminating, and surprising to explore Flow and all the ways it supports
aligning with wisdom:
Your wisdom--mind, body, and spirit--by listening to your inner guidance and finding joy, peace, and wonder.
How is your wisdom calling you
to embrace Flow?
This Co-Creative Mandala from a photograph of Japanese anemone (symbolizes transition) is associated with the solar plexus, heart, and crown chakras. It invites us to discover Divine order in the chaos. This is the time for Aligning with Wisdom...the natural, effortless, joyful, inter-connectedness of all things. Remember, you don't have to work so hard. This mandala invites us to find extraordinary meaning and purpose in our ordinary, everyday experiences. Slow down and allow your heart and mind to take in all of your life’s wonders by letting those simple moments fill you with joy, peace, and awe. Let your inner squirrel out to play!
Happy August!
What a time to be alive! Sometimes scary, unsettling, destabilizing--yes; meant to shake us up and reorganize us from the inside out, as any great spiritual transformation does.
August has been quite an interesting month energetically, astrologically, and seasonally-with the shift in seasonal energy, post-full moon, lion’s gate, mercury going direct and all of the other crazy things the planets are doing.
Individually and collectively, we’ve been saying for decades that we’re living in a time of great evolutionary shift–what we often call the "breakdown for the breakthrough". We are definitely in the midst of that shift.
There are times when it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, and others when it’s painstakingly obvious that change is the only constant in our lives. For many, this is one of those times. I know it is for me. I'm not big lover of change, even when the change is my idea.
Last week’s new moon brought me a moment of clarity I didn’t know I needed.
For quite some time I've been pulling Co-Creative Mandalas oracle cards as part of my daily routine of asking "What do I need to know today?", which is designed to help me Align with Wisdom, tune into my soul driven purpose, and synchronize with the rhythms of nature as the season begins to shift.
And as I sat with the card I pulled, the Heart Chakra, it reminded me that love flows to, through, and as me. I suddenly felt something inside me soften.
Because what I realized is:
There’s a fear I’ve been carrying – a fear that things might not work out, a fear that maybe I’m not enough, a fear that I'm all alone, a fear that I can't trust my inner guidance.
But what the card showed me was I don’t have to hold this anymore.
I can step out of the endless loop of fear thinking. I can release the grip on trying to control things – trying to figure it all out, trying to force the path forward, trying to do it all on my own.
I can let go of the pressure to create the perfect plan or have everything figured out.
I can choose trust.
I can allow room for surprises, unexpected opportunities, and new experiences. I can stay grounded — not to bypass the my suffering or the suffering of the world, but to meet it with clarity, presence, and power.
That shift has been a main theme for me this year and a huge part of my own summer growth: the shift from trying to control everything … to learning how to trust, learning how to go with the Flow and make peace...with my fears.
By allowing things to unfold I realize my journey doesn't require force.
It asks for faith.
That’s the invitation of this time of year — and my deep soul work of this season:
To listen closely for what’s being revealed from within, from the Universe, and from nature.
This is the time to receive the clarity that’s ready to shine through, to trust that everything is unfolding in its own wild, wise timing.
Maybe because, here in Colorado, we've had stretches of hot weather and the garden is still abundant while at the same time it's slowing down, I’ve found myself in a place of also slowing down and taking in the spaciousness and stillness of this time. Overall, the energy has been calling me to be even more present. It's been reminding me how important Flow is.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the positive psychologist credited with having popularized the concept of Flow, offered a definition for the mental state of being ‘in Flow’ in his interview with Wired magazine.
…being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved...
I've also noticed that anchoring into the truth that presence and the stillness of Flow are safe and okay… I’ve discovered a deeper level of connection than ever before. This is really the only place I want to be– right here. Flow is a state of joy, creativity and total involvement. Our problems disappear, and there’s a feeling of transcendence.
This connection feels very purposeful. It’s focused but not rushed. It’s exciting and very grounded.
When we finally feel safe enough to pause, to breathe, to receive - that’s when our soul-driven purpose comes alive.
That's when we align with our inner wisdom, the wisdom of nature, and Divine wisdom.
Every spiritual tradition has its own way of naming the sacred space of Flow…
The Buddhists call it emptiness, or the void.
Depth psychologists speak of the essential Self.
The Taoists know it as the flow in the natural world, or the Way.
No matter the name, this is our sacred purpose and our true nature. We all carry this sacred space inside us, but too often we forget that it’s always available to us, waiting to be accessed.
Do you remember when you were a kid and everything around you was a curiosity and delight to be explored? I'm discovering this is the attitude that allows the expansive energy of Flow. This means honoring, then letting go of the fear that comes from past ideas, beliefs, and stories I tell myself that have held me back from being open to Aligning with Wisdom and living my soul driven purpose.
Sometimes it's easier just to go back to the way things were, even if that fights with my sincere intention to change. Self-love, self-forgiveness, and radical self-acceptance are key. And remembering as Louise Hay often said, " Life loves you".
I believe we're being called to live as if today is the first day, from a “both/and” and heart-centered perspective. This is where Flow and the true magic of our co-creative partnership with nature and the Universe is revealed.
Feelings of inner peace, joy, and well-being are associated with Flow. In many indigenous cultures, humor, laughter and love are considered medicines for the heart that Flow invites us to express.
I recently completed an online course in which I learned about late cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien's (1940-2014) Four Rivers of Life: The Rivers of Inspiration, Challenge, Surprise, and Love.
According the Arrien, many traditional societies believe that these rivers sustain and support us. They remind us of Flow in our lives, support Aligning with Wisdom, and connect us to something bigger than we are. The magic happens when you let yourself Flow through each of the rivers, instead of trying to force the river, or avoid the obstacles, or swim up stream.
I think the lack of stimulation allows us to hear and experience a deeper river that's constant, still, vibrant,and real.
Angeles Arrien
Excerpted from The Second Half of Life:
Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom
Noticing Flow can be as easy as investing attention when it's happening, rather than taking Flow for granted.
For decades, many of us have noticed and journaled about what we're grateful for. So keeping a daily journal that tracks the moments of Flow that we're blessed to encounter and experience throughout the day may seem familiar. Mindfulness, spiritual practices, and a daily ritual of tracking Flow can have such profound spiritual effect on our life, help restore our center, and invite us to remember what really matters.
These moments aren’t just pleasant little joys meant to enchant us (although that's important, too); they are spiritual medicine. They pull us away from the busy mind and its relentless chatter, the fear, the need to force. They land us back in the body where we can reclaim our power to remember our Wholeness.
Cheryl Richardson
From a Facebook Post
Perspective is everything. We have an opportunity to find peace and power in Flow by changing our minds, shifting our attention and intentions, and trusting ourselves, the Universe, and nature to guide us.
I believe many of us are being called to the power and magic of Flow. Because of this, in the midst of all that's happening, I trust the veil of fear and separation is lifting. Individually and collectively, we're piercing through it. I trust enough of us are awakening to this new consciousness, one that activates the gifts and capacities in each of us–an orientation towards remembering our Wholeness; an anchoring of inter-being and radical love; an Aligning with Wisdom.
We are the ones we've been waiting for...
Wishing you the joy of discovering many moments of Flow as the rest of the summer and the changing seasons unfold.
Blessings of love and light,
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