Let's begin by getting comfortable in a seated upright position.
Certainly if you have any back troubles or knee issues,
You're welcome to lay down as well.
If you're seated,
Go ahead and sit upright with your feet grounded and your palms up to receive.
Relax from head to toe,
Starting with eyebrows,
Forehead,
Softening your jaw,
Unclenching in areas that you might be clenching.
Draw your shoulders down from your neck and let them hang comfortably on your elongated spine.
Soften your belly.
Relax your arms,
Your hands,
Your legs,
And your feet.
Let's begin by imagining that we are walking alongside a creek.
We're in a wooded area,
The air is crisp and cool,
And we notice this creek is flowing freely and represents our life as we were born without any understanding of the world.
We also didn't have any preferences,
Likes,
Dislikes,
Fears that we felt we needed to control very much like that phase of our life.
This creek is flowing without any obstacles or blockages in the flow.
We watch this creek flowing naturally as it should without any blockages in its way.
It is simply being utilized in the way the nature needs it to be.
Maybe it's being a source of water and hydration for the wildlife in the area.
Maybe it's assisting the fish to swim downstream when necessary.
It's simply being and serving its purpose in the world.
Now imagine that same stream as you're watching it from afar.
Imagine that same stream with large boulders.
Each large boulder represents an area of your life that you feel dis-ease,
That you fear and that you feel like you need to control.
Maybe it's your business life,
Maybe it's your personal life,
Maybe it's your family life,
Maybe it's your kids and some of the relationships they have or their academics.
Let's just kind of sit here for a few minutes and imagine what boulders we might have in our life right now and just identify them without any judgment.
As you identify what boulders are existing in your life and in your need to feel the need to control,
Witness how that impacts the flow of that creek and how significantly different it looks and feels compared to the free-flowing creek that represents our early years.
What kind of obstacles are those boulders creating for the flow of water and symbolically for the flow of your life?
How might that impact the ecosystem in that creek?
Maybe the fish can no longer utilize that creek to flow and to swim downstream.
Maybe the ability to provide hydration is impacted because the wildlife can't access the water with all of the boulders.
How similarly are the obstacles in your life blocking the natural ability of flow?
Now imagine those same boulders,
The same areas of our life that we find difficult and that we have fear over and that we are attempting to control.
Imagine shrinking them down to the size of pebbles.
So instead of sticking out over the water's horizon,
They are now pebbles underneath the water.
Maybe they still exist and those areas of life are still a source of worry in some instances and still areas that you often feel the need to control,
But instead of completely overtaking your mind,
They simply flow underneath the surface.
They exist,
You're not judgmental about them,
But they also are not the overarching theme of your life.
The natural flow of life represented by the creek flows perfectly fine right over those pebbles.
They don't impact the flow,
They don't impact the ecosystem,
They don't affect the ability for the local wildlife to hydrate from the water or for the fish to swim downstream.
They're simply there.
Now imagine that being your life rather than large,
Overwhelming,
Impossible obstacles of areas that you feel that you need to control.
They're simply just another fact of life that exists beyond the surface and beneath the surface,
But that does not negatively impact the flow of life above it.
As we take a few deep breaths,
I encourage you to come back to this visual when factors in life feel overwhelming,
When your focus returns to control.
Remember the boulders,
Remember the pebbles,
Begin the process of surrendering and moving that pendulum back towards love and those rocks and boulders back towards the size of pebbles.
Take a few deep breaths here and feel the freedom that comes with a life of surrender.
