Forgiveness and flow…

As the summer comes to close here where I live in NY, I am observing my body and my energy as they are recalibrating. There are new rhythms (as school began for my children), new ways of dressing my body (as temperature fluctuations get more expansive), and new ideas flowing that need more time and energy to bring to fruition.

I am taking more and more moments to pause, to reflect, to deeply rest, to notice how my nervous system is already missing the big energy of summer and wants me to keep go, go, going even though my body is clearly saying, "Slow down."

On Monday, I led the first class of the Let It Flow Cosmic Smashbooking Series and we started to explore what flow means, where we observe flow in our lives, in our bodies, in nature, and beyond.

Then later in the day, I gave myself the gift of joining a healing arts workshop led by my friend Marina Tselner (one of our guest hosts from the Reclaim Your Creative Expression event) and the theme of that workshop was forgiveness.

As I was working through her process and free-writing about forgiveness, I realized that forgiveness and flow were intimately connected. I got clarity that, for me, forgiveness was the key to unlocking the flow of energy that wanted to move through me.

The beauty of this awareness was that it was so, so gentle. When I asked myself who I wanted to forgive, I got clarity that there were some people I wasn't ready to forgive and that was okay. But where I was ready to forgive, it was time to do so.

And here's the thing: forgiveness felt just like releasing!

Marina described the anger or grudges we hold as something that sticks to us...I saw it as clogging the pipes, the arteries of the energy flow. Holding on to those 'clogs' slowed the flow of energy (or sometimes blocked it completely).

I have seen this phenomenon play out in our homes as well. When objects no longer serve us, yet we continue to hold onto them, they slow or block the flow of energy in our home. Instead of being a place of nourishment or refuge, our home can become a place of shame, stress, or overwhelm.

So today, I'm curious...is there something you've noticed that you are holding onto that is ready to be released?

Perhaps just one item. Can you let it go? With gratitude and love?

And trust that this will make space for something beautiful to flow into your home or into your life?

After I completed my healing art project, I woke the next morning ready to release anger I had been holding for over two years in one of my friendships. I reached out and offered connection. It felt clear. I was ready. It brought with it a new level of peace inside my heart.

I hope that each day, you too can find a new peace and open up more flow as you gently release what's no longer serving you.