Changes.  Changing.  Shifting.  Moving.  Coming.  Going.  Continuously.  Such is life.  Easy come, easy go.  Life is always working for us, if we choose to live by her rules…but how often do we flow like water with her?  How simple is it to accept things as they are, even when they’re hard and uncomfortable…and especially when they’re shifting from a place we’ve really enjoyed to a place we’d really rather not experience?  Try as we might, there’s no avoiding it.  The future, she comes for us all regardless if we’re prepared for her or not. 

We know that stagnant water is breeding grounds for harmful bacteria to develop…so most of us wouldn’t intentionally choose to drink it, and even swimming in it would be super questionable.  Why then would we think it’s a great idea to stop going with the flow of the universe at any time?  When we do that it tends to be for one of 2 reasons: in order to either try and save the good moments we’re experiencing now or to stop the possibility of hard moments in the future…and when we do this, we begin to stagnate.  When this happens, the flow of life doesn’t stop…but we block her natural movements through us, which causes extreme resistance…resulting in unnecessary pressure and friction showing up in our lives.  The very thing that we’re often trying to avoid, is the direct consequence of our inability to accept what IS and the possibility of future transformation. 

I know this process VERY well, unfortunately.  You may not be able to tell from my lifestyle (traveling, living without a home throughout the world…one moment at a time), but I have NEVER been the greatest fan of “change”.  To be honest, she and I have gotten along like cats and dogs since the earliest part of my life.  She’s a big fan of moving things forward and will do so by any means necessary…and I prefer to not stir the pot, even when it’s gone cold.    

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize when I’m going against the flow of the universe and the natural movement of change but it hasn’t exactly made things easier…it just gives me a head’s up when a shift is going to be forcefully put into place in order to get me back on the right track.  This is the loving nudge of the universe trying to liberate me from my self-inflicted struggles.  Things start quickly altering around me…in small ways at first, but in direct correlation with significant details in my life (where I’m living, working, who I am in a relationship with, family etc).  When this happens in several areas, I can be absolutely positive things will be adjusting at a faster, more intense and much more significant way VERY quickly.  If I wait for it to come, it will catch me off guard and I’ll be left trying to run in order to catch up.  However, if I choose to preemptively start making changes when the signs begin showing up, I can be much better prepared for the shift taking place. 

Let me give you an example, I was living in San Francisco…which in and of itself would be a dream for some…but for me, I could feel that things weren’t moving forward and was quite dissatisfied with life.  Truth be told, I’m absolutely certain there were things I could have done which would have given me a very different experience, but I did the best I could with what I had at the moment…and it wasn’t sustainable how it was.  I could feel the resistance and strength of the universal flow trying to move through me, but I blocked her through my fear and discomfort…because what lies in the darkness of the unknown could be even less comfortable than the absolute misery I was currently living in!  And I wasn’t prepared to deal with that.  Thinking back on it, it’s very unlikely I would have been worse off, but fear got the best of me and I refused to accept the possibilities of change. 

I was, however, warned that these changes were coming.  I started experiencing some really scary health issues and having very vivid dreams of living through and surviving natural disasters: 7 of them, to be exact.  Each was completely different from the previous…but they were all massively devastating.  In a few of them, when the disaster hit (whatever it was), I was in a building that completely fell sideways as if it was a block being pushed on it’s side.  I saw it coming just long enough to brace…but knew that wasn’t possible so I just waited and anticipated it to hit, knowing there was nothing I could do to avoid it.  After each one hit, I survived and then helped reorganize and rebuild with the few people whom I knew were with me at the time.  The strange thing was, even though these dreams occurred over the matter of a year and a half, each time I was about to get hit I remembered the FIRST dream I had had…not as if it was a dream but as if it was an experience I had already been through and therefore KNEW what I was about to go through…and each time my fear of these events got less and less. 

As part of this preparation for the future shift, I went to Tony Robbins 4-day conference “Unleash the Power Within”.  I knew that if I wanted a fighting chance in life that not only would I need to be able to adjust from whatever happened, I would need to be able to make the kinds of decisions that would start to rebuild the life I really wanted after this event.  This conference was an extreme sacrifice for me to get to, but I was committed to finding the answers which would give me the tools and courage to do whatever I needed to do.

When I finally got laid off my job in San Francisco, I knew it was coming…the writing was on the wall…and it could have been extremely devastating (which it was scary in some ways)…but I already knew the feeling of what my life would feel like if it got turned upside-down somehow from those preparatory dreams, so when that disaster hit…I knew I would survive and could rebuild. 

Then, instead of spending days and weeks feeling sorry for myself and trying to come up with plan “B” to maintain the life I had been living already, I felt empowered to make decisions that felt RIGHT for me…even if they wouldn’t be easy and predictable.  I walked STRAIGHT INTO THE UNKNOWN, hoping that instead of accepting the life I felt was inevitable (even though it didn’t work for me) I could somehow find my way and place in the world…somewhere that allowed me to feel like ME…and feel fulfilled by it all!  I had no idea how to do that, what it would take or even if it was possible…but I HAD to try…my life depended on it!   

Even today I continue to search for the answers.  I don’t have a clear path and am still constantly living in the unknown (continue to read every day and you’ll see what I mean)…but the process and path I’m making to figure it out work so much better for me than the ones I’ve tried previously…and I’ve been happier (overall) than at any other time in my life!  In spite of that, I still have loved ones telling me that the only way to live life is the way I was…the way they a

re…and that, unfortunately does NOT work for me and is not MY truth.  For the first time in my life, I took a chance on the life I really WANTED to live…and have been working every day since then to figure out how to do it (long-term) in a way that makes me truly happy (and consequently how to share this method with others to use in their lives to find fulfillment as well)!    

Moral of the Story:  I don’t have all the answers.  I don’t even LOVE change…but I respect what she’s trying to do for me in life and have started trying to work WITH her rather than AGAINST her.  When I do this, changes don’t stop…but my ability to bounce back, adjust and even enjoy the process is MUCH better than when I resist it!  Suit up and jump in…let flow take you where you want to go!