Friday, November 04, 2011

Mental Forward Bend

There are certain moments in life when a firm resolve is exactly what we need. Stability, focus and undeterred purpose become the solid rock that gets us through that especially tough time, keeping us on course. Despite obstacles and distractions, we concentrate our efforts into a single goal, emerging triumphant. Other times, however, such fixation of purpose and rigidity could be the very source of our stagnation, breakage and decay. When we refuse to change, we offer resistance, and the more resistance we offer to a circumstance, the more strength it takes on our part and the greater the force exerted against it.

Most of us are familiar with the fable of the mighty oak and the flexible reed. While the oak resisted the stormy winds, it cracked and fell, while the reed, swaying in a dance of adapting flexibility, gracefully survived. Within its intention to live, the reed found a way to bend instead of breaking. This strategy is precisely what could help us at certain times. We cannot always change external conditions, but we can control how we face them.

Certain challenges require us to grow out of our comfort zone and hopefully evolve. They provide an opportunity to explore the new, discard the old and try other ways of being. You realize that perhaps that which you were dearly clinging to was the very thing that allowed you to soar once you decided to move on. In order to be free you have to let go of whatever holds you back.

This reminds me of a thought from Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success:

"In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty. In the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe."

Bend to move forward.

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