You're Invited: Going With The Flow Of Life

Victorious Sisterhood: We welcome you to join us every Monday at 11 am PST, where we connect and notice the cycles of our lives. Each week through checking in, we can see how we are shifting and changing over time. We hold a protective and safe space for you to be in whatever season you are without judgment or comparative energy. We celebrate all seasons and welcome each woman's experience. Please register to join us tomorrow or a Monday soon that suits you best!

Flow, as this too, shall pass...

Go with the flow. We hear this a lot. I am sure we all have our own interpretation of flow. It may conjure up images of a surfer dude, chillin' by the ocean, or a woman floating in surrender perhaps in a warm and familiar lake.

But what is the flow really? And where does the flow take us? And are we in charge or in control of when and where this flow happens?

Picture now a mighty river, moving and grooving its way through the earth. Does it know where it's going? Is it entirely in control of what obstacles may be in its path?

Rivers tend to be snake-like patterns weaving their way through landscapes. Bending through narrow caverns and then expanding in areas that permit this wide rush of water.

Our lives are much like these rivers. Driven by an unseen force, one that may be setting the speed, landscape, and placing obstacles in our way.

We are all trying to work with the flow that is happening inside of us and around us. If we get into very masculine energy, we will try to control that river with dams and use its resources as much as possible. If we are in our feminine energy, we ride the wave through the rhythms and cycles, trusting that we are, in fact, the river and the river is us.

Many of us get stuck in the grasping and holding onto the expansion. We love to feel good, happy and in control. We then manage what we can around us to hold onto the good times as much as possible, and when the contraction comes, we want out. And we blame ourselves for being in a contracted state; we want to be happy all the time, high on life.

If others are not on our high blissful frequency, we want to run away from them before bringing us down. We are afraid of the contraction. We want to make the river predictable, controllable, so we can hold onto our expanded state as long as possible.

When we inhale into the body, the belly should expand, and the air moves up with the help of the diaphragm contracting, pushing air into the lungs. This motion will move the shoulders as we reach the top of that inhale. As we exhale, the air will flow out, leaving the lungs, the diaphragm will relax, the belly button will contract, moving the navel area towards the spine. In every breath, we rely on expansion and contraction to stay alive.

We are experiencing expansion and contraction all the time.

Approaching life through a more feminine lens brings awareness to these cycles of expansion and contraction. We will notice as we move through our monthly bleeding cycle, and for those who no longer bleed, that cycle is the same. We women are ruled by the moon. We may notice that we experience all four seasons in a month. An extraverted season we could call summer—a spring season where we plant new seeds, new ideas. Fall when we start to gather the harvest, and winter when we rest and hibernate. All of the cycles of nature are within us, and women experience these monthly. We change every two and half days, just like the moon.

We were trained at a young age to act much like men. To survive in society, we are expected to have steady energy that is always summer, always extraverted, continuously expanded. Our society was not set up for cycles and rhythms. And so these seasons within us are not celebrated as they should be, for each season has its richness and wisdom.

So how do we flow like the tremendous divine river? How can we stay steady in self-love, even as we ride the waves of life?

Through noticing.

We stoke the fire of self-care and self-love by attending to our needs. Each season we have different needs. Identifying our needs and noticing our rhythms gives an excellent insight into how we might flow with life.

When the contracted state comes, we build awareness around what we need and serve us as we hibernate in our inner world. We know that this too shall pass and we may become experienced at extracting the nourishment from the mud.

When we are in an expanded state, we may get many of our projects up and running, flowing in Sun energy and forward inspiration.

But this too shall pass.

Flow is knowing and practicing working with the energies that expand and contract. We no longer have to think there is something wrong with us. The inner questioning of, "Why can't I just be happy and extroverted and feel good all the time? This question can start to dissolve, and we replace it with loving awareness.

So the flow is actually the ability to be neutral about which way the river bends or how fast or narrow or wide it is. We know it is full of wisdom and richness, and like every season, it will pass and change like all things in nature.

This awareness around our cycles of expansion and contraction allows us to recognize that we cannot control what might come. But we are in control of how we perceive our many seasons. Can we be neutral and graceful when we are called into inner hibernation? When we are called to do our personal mud work, can we acknowledge that this too shall pass, and perhaps we can even give praise to the mud for its rich nourishment?

And when the Sun energy of expansion comes, we can flow with the energy of production and bliss, without the grasping control to hold onto it forever. For this, too shall pass.

Flow with a neutral mind. No season is better than the other. There is a purpose to all. The stories we makeup, shameful stories, that something must be wrong with us if we are not steady sun-expanded, happy energy all the time. The stories keep us stagnant, not the season we are in.

Flow, as this too, shall pass.

Much Love,

Patricia MacNeill

Victorious Sisterhood: We welcome you to join us every Monday at 11 am PST, where we connect and notice the cycles of our lives. Each week by checking in, we can see how we are shifting and changing. We hold a protective and safe space for you to be in whatever season you are without judgment or comparative energy. We celebrate all seasons and welcome each woman's experience. Please register to join us tomorrow or a Monday soon that suits you best!