With Covid-19, I had more time at hand and I was playing with the idea of getting a new tattoo. And so I did. My new tattoo is in Sanskrit that loosely translates to “go with the flow”. This expression is so commonly used but we don’t really dissect the phrase enough. When I chose this, I looked into the deeper meanings and that stroke a cord in me.
To go with the flow is to let go, to surrender to what is. I stopped and pondered about what that meant to me. This can be hard to follow but something I knew deep within my soul that I had to work on hence the tattoo serves as a reminder.
To surrender to what is doesn’t mean to not act. On the contrary it means just the opposite. It means to act and not be concern of what comes from it. I detach myself from the outcome of my action. So whatever the result, I’m okay. This while easily said is profoundly difficult to practice. Most of the time we do things for a particular result; we work for an outcome. I know this to be true in the field I’m in – as a teacher, I teach because I want my students to learn. As a trauma & relationship counselor, I counsel because I want my clients to have tools to help themselves, I write so my work can reach an audience and make an impact.
I realized that while all that is great, it isn’t the formula to life and happiness. While my intention is noble, it doesn’t serve me. I can’t teach with a potential outcome in mind because then the true pleasure of teaching isn’t because of the very act of teaching, of standing in front of the class and delivering what I need to deliver, it is to impart what I think they need to learn. On so many levels this is ‘wrong’. 1) It puts me on a perceived superior ground because I think they need to know something and that I have something to offer. While this may be true but it still seems arrogant. 2) The pleasure of teaching is lost if the students don’t care about what I’m teaching and don’t regard it to be important.
The way to go about this is to do what we do with passion, to not be focused on the outcome or how it is being perceived. This I’m reminded of when I was teaching a rather mischievous class and they refused to listen. I felt defeated and it made me feel like a failure as a teacher. I couldn’t do what I love because I was concern about them and not me doing my part. While it takes two to tango, when the students see a teacher’s passion in what he / she does and is able to deliver a lesson from that place and simplify that in what is being taught, there is no way a student won’t be inspired to learn. I love teaching speaking skills and when I simply focused on what I love, that’s when it all changed for the better. Not only do I enjoy what I am teaching but also now the students and I have a good rapport.
Let’s look at love because matters of the heart are a lot trickier. We all want love. We give it because we want it in return. But is that how true love works? If we give because we want something back, isn’t that self focused and not about the joy of giving in itself? But we all fall in that trap because it is so easy to give love because we want it in return. I am guilty of that. It is okay to want affection and to want to be loved back. But when we are giving love, it needs to be with the intention of giving. Seeing your loved one smile, or knowing that he / she will be happy by what you’re doing is ‘going with the flow’ and is truly loving. But also being aware that they might not react in the way that you anticipated but still being okay with it (until you learn what their love languages are). I’m aware of when I’m wanting some love back and when I’m doing it from a place of letting go. It is also okay to tell our loved ones that we need some love right now. In a relationship when we feel low, we turn to each other and that is the beauty of feeling safe to be vulnerable and to reach out. But in this blog, I’m focusing more on the general idea of giving and wanting something back.
I feel our energy when it is from a place of letting go is of a different vibration. When we want something in return, it comes from a place of feeling unfulfilled and lacking. When that is the vibration then that is being magnified.
You know how they say; you find love when you’re not looking for it. It simply is because when you feel fulfilled in life, you’re feeling alive and being you. That vibration being oozed is different from when you go looking for love. You look for something because you don’t have it in you. That feeling of something is lacking isn’t attractive but also means you’re holding tight to finding love externally instead of being the love you want to have. Like Gandhi once said, be the change you want to see in the world. You want some love, be that love first.
In the same token, with Covid-19, we are forced to stop and be. We have to go with the flow because we don’t have a choice. This virus has compelled us to put on the brakes for the sake of mankind. Greed has taken over us that we have forgotten how to just be. When we consume ourselves with wanting more for ourselves whether it is toilet roll or stocking up on canned food versus looking at what this is here to teach us, we get side tracked and forget to look at the bigger picture of what this truly is. It is a spiritual awakening. I believe this pandemic is here for us to come together as mankind, to put our differences aside and stand by each other and not point fingers. When we are able to rise above that and come together, we will learn what this pandemic is trying to teach us. In the documentary, Heal it shows how people are able to heal themselves naturally from very dire health conditions when all other medical treatments have failed. I believe we have that immense potential to heal not just ourselves but even our planet if we collectively believe that. When we let go of greed and separation, see one another as one big family, then the world will shift in ways that it never has before.
To one and all and our beautiful planet; our Mother Earth.