I love trees. I find them fascinating. They can tower over hillsides and mountain ranges up where the winds can howl harshly and still they stand. They move and shake and get whipped about in a storm, sure some may fall eventually, yet the majority stand and they do it daily in many conditions for 100’s – 1000’s of years.
If they were ridged and refused to give way to a strong wind they would snap. Instead they dance and move and bend and go with the flow of the wind and thrive.
Your spine is like a tree made to move, bend, sway and be flexible all whilst still having the strength to protect the delicate soft spinal cord inside. If parts become ridged they loose their flexibility and are susceptible to damage. Flexibility and strength are equally important. Making sure each individual part of you is strong and yet flexible is essential to feeling alive and bending in the breeze of life.
There are 6 fundamental needs that humans require. Two of those are the need for certainty and the need for uncertainty. We could also liken them to having strength and flexibility.
Certainty or strength is that personal satisfaction of knowing how things are going to turn out. Having goals and lists and schedules to be organised and get stuff done helps with certainty. Having a schedule and knowing that if you do ABC your day usually turns out the regular XYZ. How do you feel if you do ABC to get XYZ for too long? BORED!!! Humans need the uncertainty with the certainty. Being too ridged in your schedule leaves no room for uncertainty in your day. When uncertainty happens in a way that you were not expecting all of a sudden your dancing and swaying becomes stiff and ridged you are now susceptible to stress and damage.
Uncertainty can feel uncomfortable, as you certainly know how well ABC usually works out for you right? The art of allowing uncertainty is to be open and flexible instead of too strong and ridged. This is the place that opportunities present and joy, fun and the creation of your life occurs. After all it’s not about waiting for the storm to pass it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
Think about those times in your life that you considered stressful and uncertain that in hindsight lead you to something you are now truly grateful for. Would you now want to go back and change that moment to follow the plan avoid the uncomfortable uncertainty to be comfortable in the certainty?
This is where gratitude lives. Reflect on as many of these moments as you can this is your proof that you can be strong and flexible, certain and uncertain and sway and dance in the breeze of your life.
