I hit the pool yesterday. After a few laps plodding along in my lane, my breath started to even out, my body relaxed, the thoughts quietened, and the feeling of freedom I get from being in water started to wash over me.
Swimming along, I was taken by the feeling of being on the brink of two worlds – one above the water and one below.
The wind had picked up and was churning up the water on the surface, every time I pulled my arm out of the water I felt the cold wind and water whip across me. The surface was choppy and frenetic. Yet every time I looked underneath, there remained a beautiful stillness. My eyes wandered around underwater, scanning the inside of the pool, there was no movement to be seen – and all I felt was peace. Beneath the surface, I was quite oblivious to the fact there was a storm raging on above.
What was abundantly clear was this – what’s happening on the surface, isn’t always a true reflection of what’s going on below.
Every time I turned my head for air I could see both above the water line, and below. I took a breath at this point, stared out from my goggles and soaked in the juxtaposition of these two worlds. There it was spelt out in black and white – the yin and yang of life.
I like to think this is not dissimilar to us; our external selves, and our souls within. Our souls are un-wavering, un-changing. Although it may not feel like it sometimes, the core of who we are remains constant. Our values, our truth, our inner being. Regardless of the many winds that may be blowing in our lives, the centre of our being remains strong. Some winds will howl a gale (and sometimes create tornados), others blow a soft gentle breeze – but there is always movement on the outside.
Change is the only constant of life.
We cannot control what happens to us in life, but we sure do have control of how we chose to respond.
For me, it’s about creating distance from these winds – from my circumstances, events, experiences, and from my own thoughts. I’m finding that this space is beginning to create a separation – a buffer for my soul – which cuts the ties from external stimuli to internal feeling, and ultimately fosters a calmness inside.
I am realising that I am not ruled by the winds in my life, I am separate, I am independent. I am not defined by the external. I am defined by my own inner soul pool.
How calm are the waters of YOUR soul?
May we continue to practice this separation between the external and the internal, to generate more calmness, more bliss and more freedom in our lives.
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