Working with fear to create space for flow

Exploration of the senses and their intrinsic connection to memories and belief systems can go a number of ways. Overwhelm, bliss and infatuation are common responses to the discovery or remembrance of a sensation and its associates. Purposeful interactions with the body, in the hopes of embracing a pleasant or euphoric sensation is a shared human desire . Whereby we intent to evoke either the sensation itself, being perhaps physical pleasure, or a connected emotion or memory.

A direct interaction with the skin for example can be rather pleasurable, take a massage. The sense of pleasure received via the medium of physical contact, the encouragement of endorphins such as oxytocin. The presumable pathways one’s mind takes to associate the present smells, sounds and sights with the nerves on your back being stimulated in a fond way. The direct relief as the muscle loosens, the relief of pain and tension. The clarity that follows and the energy restored of which to be excitedly pointed towards the next event or exploration you deem important. A complex interaction of events responses and emotions become delicately interwoven into the fabric of your world. The processes by which our worlds are created has an enormous and easily overlooked capacity for excellence. The intertwining of processes such as memory and decision making. The ability to interact with the world through the senses available, is nothing short of magic.

Where do your stories come from?

A sensory exploration however can be exploited, can be breached without warning or consent. The very nerves that would have or could have received and reported a magical process of feeling and connecting. Can report a very different narrative when our interaction with them provokes unrest. The affordances we prescribe to tools, events and even dates soiled by the nature of what is now fear and distrust. The surge of free radicals coursing through one’s systems, engorging your cells, in a rampage as if the body was to replicate the pain and fury that our emotions scream. Future decisions residing upon not what is desired by the heart, but rather in a fatal attempt to stay clear of an interaction so hideous. All of which is a perfectly reasonable response, and one should thank the complexities residing in their disgust. As this disgust prevents harm, as we experience dangers we learn what to and what to not do. Which is just as well.

The intention in moving forward following chronic stress, trauma or heartache, is often to prevent the symptoms and responses arising again . However efforts are misplaced here, the goal is not to eradicate a pain response, but to prevent pain occurring. When this is an inaccessible ideal, however, we turn to the next best narrative. How to stop my pain? So let’s work backwards, what is pain? A signpost that change is required, a signal that disruption to the healthy or desirable pathway has occurred. An unapologetic lifeline, that operates both within and outside emotions. Irrespective of your interpretation or the potential of you being displeased, the body is incredible at communicating. Your stomach will rumble should it be hungry, regardless of where you are, the implicit social repercussions, or your embarrassment. Regardless of whether you can attend to your bodies cues they signal, chime and request our attention.

Naturally a history of low attention to the body means it must embark a more creative pathway should it find what it needs. But the body does not ask for permission nor forgiveness for breaking down fat, muscle or organ tissue for energy. A never seizing journey to fulfil its intentions. Sometimes the body can work as a cooperative system, communicating and sharing. Sometimes the independent objectives rain over the main “selfs” objectives. Being our conscious desires. Autoimmune disorders and panic disorders stem from a bodily function of which was stimulated past the point of a healthy threshold. Consequently, disturbing the flow, the potential for magic, the sensual embrace one could have with themselves and their world.

Your goal should not be to seis your pain responses, panic or discomfort. Nor to assume you do or should behold to competence for successful prevention of pathologies, pain and suffering. To shoot the messenger, pain, who beholds vital information is the quickest way to impair and destroy your potential for flow. Rather to follow the cries of pain and fear should you wish to attempt implementation of resolutions. Gather an understanding of what troubles reside within, where they hide and where they come from.

Should you wish for the capacity to attune your attention to the flow of life. Whether that be direct observation or interaction, second hand or even imagined flow. Flow referring to when things feel not always easy, but rather natural. Flow can sprout during movements of the body, a stretch that lives without the implications of thought. That feels like it should have happened whether you knew you were going to or it came over you in a shuddering burst. Flow is the way that laughter falls, that the breath returns, that wounds heal and that one thing simply or not leads to another. The best gift one could give me would be to co-create a bond, space or experience where I feel I can free fall. Confidently retiring my barriers (not to be mistaken for boundaries) in a trusting bond that allows one to fully submerge themself in something or someone. Flow can be found in a sharp inhalation you take as you push with all of your might over hurdles and under bridges. As you churn and run through terrains to reach a goal you have deemed worthy.

Flow can be expressed as a fire, a reflex, a journey you somehow feel was inevitable, flow feels like a sigh of relief. Fear feels jittery, jumbled and unsure, fear communicates its importance at the table in reference to the protection you require from the fear stimulus. Flow is the dance that comes when the stimulus has passed. To dance with life and not get your ribbons caught it is imperative that you talk to fear, hold her, discuss appropriate action. As without this communication fear will continue to rupture and roar throughout your being. Intruding into your capacity for flow, bargaining with your peace. Listening to fear can make it feel more real, but I like to think of it like this. Before you watched that horror film, the one that kept you up for weeks after consumption, let’s entertain the notion that the demon or creature was real. Is real. They were no concern previously, of course being aware of dangers such as food poisoning, disease and ill intent of others is necessary. Avoiding the acknowledgement of our fears is almost always more dangerous than tackling them. So, it is imperative to listen to the cries of fear should you wish to hear the harmonies of flow.

Getting ahead of ourselves is easy though isn’t it, the temptation being to retreat within the allure of distraction. Overindulgences that manifest as social media binges, overconsumption of alcohol or sugar. Overspending or thrill seeking, are all so enticing. A change of state from fear is pure bliss even if the tempo it was replaced with is uncomfortable or unattractive. So how do you find balance? Listen to fear, regulate your response, feel it but don’t let it consume you. The truth is it is impossible to prescribe a script of actions and intentions to everyone, but it may be possible to shed light on the nature of the self. Devise a set of tools of analysis in determining what you’re experiencing, and give suggestions on returning to balance, or close enough.

Learning how to live again, releasing the need to hold the universe together. Fuelled by intentions to revoke pain, taken in the presumption you behold the knowledge or power to take such calculated actions. Allowing flow to take the lead. Not in mistake of completely going limp, like a soggy biscuit crumbling into a cup of tea. Pretending it serves an enhancement to the flavour as an intended expression of surrender. But learning to distinguish between the temporary relief provided in fear based avoidance and flow. Embracing fear as a friend, a signpost of necessary change. When we can appreciate the value of fear, and the detriments of avoidance, only then can we tap into flow.