What Creates Flow?

Many many moons ago, my dear friend Cailey and I led workshops about embodied Chinese medicine. In the midst of co-creating these workshops, I had an insight that enhanced and improved my understanding of Life. For reasons I don’t fully understand, these insights have resurfaced in my mind and I’d love to share them with you. Here we go…

One of the basic tenants of Chinese medicine is 

“Where there is Pain, there is no flow. Where there is no flow, there is Pain.”

It’s vital to point out that “Pain” refers to:

• physical pain (“I broke a bone and due to inflammation there’s less flow and more swelling and that’s creating pain”)

and

• emotional pain (“I’m stuck in some way in my life, things aren’t flowing and therefore I’m experiencing anxiety or depression or both”).

If “no flow”, aka stagnation, leads to “Pain” that beckons the question, 

“What creates flow?”

Well, this is where my aha moment happened…

Polarity Generates Flow.

Things flow from high to low, from positive to negative (electricity-wise), hot to cold, yin to yang (and Yang to Yin), wet to dry…

Things flow in order to reach balance. Balance is not static, it’s dynamic. Balance requires movement and flow.

There are built-in rhythms which keep things flowing:

The earth’s spinning creates cycles of night and day, heat and coolness.

The earths rotation around the sun creates seasonal cycles.

The moon creates tidal cycles.

This keeps things flowing.

In our bodies the heart expands and contracts creating cycles of high and low pressure circulating our blood.

Lungs create rhythmic oxygenation and release of CO2 cycles.

A circadian rhythm creates cycles of sleep and awake-ness.

These cycles are what create flow and thus balance and health!

So all we have to do is identify what’s impeding our flow. Can we do the deep dive to discover what might be stuck?

Of course it can help to know why the thing is stuck, but that’s not always necessary to bring the flow back. And if we do need a bit of help identifying or figuring out how to move the stuck thing, what a perfect opportunity to reach out.

But when in doubt, movement is what supports flow. So, dance! Play with balance in motion. Allow all of your own cycles of flow to move you and any the stuck-ness along the way.

This week we have a full hour long dance playlist from the 5rhythms wave Rachael facilitated last Sunday through Golden Bridge. Enjoy. Let yourself be moved.