There is a flow to all of life, it feels great when you’re in it and rubbish when you’re not. I walked in from work the other day and the house smelt like poo. “This is not good”, I thought! I was met by my daughter who explained that she had been playing with her brother and let off a couple of stink bombs in their bedrooms. Initially I thought, that’s not too bad, but once I realised it was in the carpet, I was GRUMPY, YES GRUMPY …. ok, let’s call it what it really was …. I was ANGRY!
After inspecting the damage and ranting about their un-thoughtful behavior, I found myself looking for flow…. LITERALLY! We opened up the house and the cool breeze began to flow through relieving us of some of the stink. My heart rate began to return to normal and then we needed to address the next level of the problem. Does stink bomb residue last long and how do we deal with it in the carpet? Some elbow grease and carpet cleaner later and the house returned to harmony and flow.
Our life is always offering us opportunities to learn and grow, even in stinky ways. Each experience involves problem solving and challenges us to create boundaries to ensure the issue does not occur again. Then the invitation is to “drop it”. Drop the negativity, drop the grump and return to inner peace and flow.
Each step is vitally important:
- Cultivate your inner witness and recognise the triggered emotion (wow, look at me I’m really angry right now)
- Release the energy of the emotion – breathe, shake your body, walk/run, yell-away from others etc. (wow, I’m really caught in this anger right now, I need to move it though me)
- Share your feelings with the others involved without yelling any damaging remarks
- Create agreements of behavior and boundaries going forward (no stink bombs in the house!)
- Choose to drop the story and the emotions fully
- Forgive and return to the flow
The faster you can travel through this process, whether the problems are as small as stink bombs or as huge as a relationship break-up, the sooner you can return to your core of peacefulness. Each step needs to be honored so you get emotional relief and the best outcomes you need going forward.
Though, let’s get real, it’s super easy to move through these steps for stink bombs rather than for a divorce. But I believe the basic recipe is still the same. Obviously the process of relationship upheaval requires a lot of self-reflection and inner learning along the way, but ultimately the invitation is still the same. We are invited to learn through our life experiences, make the changes that are required, drop the story/negativity and find our way back to inner peace and the flow of life.
The flow of life is always there. Allowing it to move unrestricted through your life is the challenge and the journey.
Love and Wisdom
Mandy