Signs of Spring

Tags

change, ease, flow, signs, spring, transition

After the huge snowstorm that swept through over the past few days and covered the landscape with a foot or so of snow, it is difficult to wrap my head around the idea that we are about halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox! If I want to lean into spring, I surely can, as was evidenced by the sighting of the first robin a couple of days ago – the very day that the snow was coming down at its heaviest.

As if to leave no doubt that spring is imminent, my inboxes today, February 5th, are filled with greetings for the Indian festival Basant (spring) Panchami (fifth day of the lunar month). The festival celebrates the onset of spring, decked in yellows, and honors the Goddess Saraswati, the patron of arts, education and knowledge.

Yes. My mind and body may be still be stuck in winter, but no matter where my heart looks, the flow of spring has already begun! When has winter had enough power to hold back spring anyway? All the external signs are asking me to get ready for spring — the sun is getting higher in the sky, its arc between sunrise and sunset is getting wider, and the light is getting brighter.

In addition to the external signs, there are internal signs of spring too. These ones are a bit more subtle, but they are there for sure. As I observe the flow within, I can make better decisions on what to keep and what to let go — inner spring cleaning. As a result, the heart flows easier and feels lighter overall — a sign of spring — even though there are ‘heavy’ winter-like days when a storm or squall comes through.

Are you seeing or feeling any signs of ‘spring’ where you are at in your life right now? Or do you feel that the ‘winter thaw’ is a ways away for you yet? Or are you at a stage in life where you remain in a state of deep content, regardless of the ‘signs’ or the ‘season’?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering on twitter with the #SpiritChat community, Sunday Feb 6 at 9amET / 730pm India. We will chat about signs of spring in our lives. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Spring – a sign of creativity…

On Spiritual Flow

Tags

flow, happiness, spirituality

What is flow? For someone whose primary job description involves the words “fluid dynamics”, the concept and theory ought to be fairly straightforward. However, what is easily defined in engineering terms is not so straightforward in spiritual terms. Or is it?

In his 1990 book simply titled “Flow”, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi subtitled the book – “the psychology of optimal experience”. The author’s research on what brought people a sense of joy and why, what was it that enhanced the quality of their lives, led him to develop o theory of optimal life flow:

it is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at a great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it – Mihaly C. Flow

So, what is it that makes one activity more enjoyable than another for you? What type of activities – sports, games, hobbies, and such – put you in a state of flow, of pure joy? How do we make our jobs, our businesses, and all the relationships that we are part of, flow better?

There is a certain level of awareness, of consciousness that is associated with our experience of being in a state of flow. World-class athletes are often said to be “in the zone” when they are performing at the peak of their abilities. The same can be said for a Carnegie hall violinist in full flight. One may imagine that some of the world’s greatest works of music, literature, art and sculpture were created in a state of full flow – a state where the work was creating an optimal experience for the creator.

Life is often a mix of optimal, joyous experiences and many sub-optimal experiences that bring adversity and tragedy, often accompanied by much pain. How may we maintain our inner state of flow in the midst of external adversity? The state of our inner flow is defined by our spiritual attitude and refined by adversity. It is a state in which there is “order in our consciousness”. When adversity disturbs our inner order, we get an opportunity to discover new states of flow.

The extent to which we can be in flow will depend on our state of inner preparation, which depends on our commitment to spiritual practice. When our heart is in a state of freedom from the mind’s random fluctuations, a dynamic inner flow is achieved. We can then feel in control of our inner life, its direction, and enjoy the flow. Is there a better way to enhance the quality of our life, to have an optimal experience?

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Please join us for our weekly twitter conversation in #SpiritChat – Sunday, June 10th at 9amET / 630pm India. We shall ask and answer some questions about Flow, and I am excited to see what unfolds. Namaste.

The Rocky River – in full flow…

On Awareness and Flow

Tags

awareness, flow, guide, guru

A Nature Walk with ‘Sheila’

There are those who are the salt of the Earth. They may not look outwardly prosperous or ‘wealthy’, but their wealth lies in their empathy, compassion, resilience, and sense of awareness. You feel the flow of their life-force when you are around them, and in their presence, some droplets from the stream of their innerspring of spirit get sprinkled onto you! 

Our guide for the nature walk at the resort today was “Sheila”. Of ‘Native American’ descent, we found out very quickly that this was not just an ordinary ‘walk’ for her. She gave us a bit of the history of the area, and patiently educated us about almost every tree, shrub and flower that we walked by. Her eyes would light up, her step would quicken, her voice would rise in pride when we came across native species – palms, palmettos, spiders, butterflies, alligators, and more. 

The highlight of the walk – as she told me after it was over – was the ‘calling of the owls’. It was the first time that she had been able to attract not one or two, but four or five owls with her calling. As she explained it, the call went something like “who. who. who cooks for you.” To watch a ‘barred owl’ in full flight is a thing of beauty. To hear Sheila interact and engage with them with her voice was like having premium seating at nature’s orchestra performance with a master conductor. 

There were conversations about bullfrogs, cicadas, all kinds of water fowl, swans, snakes, armadillos, wolves, deer, bobcats, and of course, alligators. There were woodpecker and finch sightings, the Florida ‘state butterfly’ (zebra longwing, horizontal black and yellow stripes), and even a monarch butterfly or two. 

Yes, she was knowledgeable about her environment, about the land, the plants, and the animals. More than that, What transpired in those two plus hours of ‘walking’ with this wonderfully graceful, grey-haired, ‘salt of the earth’ spirit-guide of a human-being was the realization that I was walking with a deeply caring individual whose entire mind, body, spirit and soul lives in awareness and flow. It brought the realization to me that our guides, our gurus, our mentors, are available to us at many of life’s turns – though we may to make a bit of an effort and walk into their presence with an open heart.

No, not an effort to actively go ‘seek’ them, but to make ourselves available to be led “off the beaten pathways” of our everyday lives into unfamiliar territory. And sometimes, that ‘effort’ may mean that we may have to awaken at 6:30am on a “vacation day” – to go discover our spirit-guide, to bring ourselves into their field of awareness, and discover our flow in That serendipity. 

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join us in our weekly twitter chat, with hashtag #SpiritChat ~ Sunday August 2nd at 9amET/1pmUTC. We will discuss “Awareness and Flow”. If you have some favorite ‘flow’ experiences, particularly those that came about as a result of serendipity, please do share. Thank you, and Namaste 🙂