Tuning in to the “River” Channel

August 31, 2006 by  

RedShift eZine
August 2006

In this month’s issue (and audio episode) I want to share a story of a recent peak experience related to rowing, which is a passion of mine, and to share how that experience has helped me shift from ‘survive’ to ‘thrive’. I’ve discovered that as I align with nature, my communication skills improve and and my personal and professional relationships become more honest and authentic.??

Inspiration

After days of record breaking rainfall and high wind two weeks ago, the bad weather broke and I ventured over to my rowing club on the Charles River. It looked a little rough and there were warnings about water quality, but I decided to take my boat out for a short row in spite of feeling nervous. A friend of mine, Brooke, was in the locker room and she had just come in from her row. I asked her about the conditions. But first let me describe Brooke. In a nutshell she is a fantastic rower and competitor, a nature lover, and a truly lovely and gracious person that I love to be around. She responded "I just had to go all the way to Watertown Square because the river was so alive with swirls and eddies … just so alive!" So I launched, and for a mile or so the water was fairly calm. I was happy to be back on the water and out of the gym, and I was feeling pretty pumped and pleased with myself for being one of the few rowers on the river. But the calm conditions suddenly changed.

Change

Another mile down river, the wind picked up, the sky darkened and the water got choppy. I struggled crossing the river in turning around to row back to my club. Then the gusts started to blow me around, my oars were getting caught in the waves, I got tense and started thinking about how alone I was, and that it was at least 2 miles to row back, and what would I do if my boat flipped over and why the hell did I go out anyway? At that moment I suddenly heard Brooke’s words, "the river is so alive!"

Shift

My attitude and outlook immediately shifted and my facial expression went from grimace to grin. I thought about my great coaches who taught me how to row in crazy conditions and my years of training and practice. My confidence came flooding back and my strokes improved and my speed picked up. Then I started moving fast, really fast. I noticed the water around me and it was swirls and eddies and so alive..exactly how Brooke described it! It was fun and exhilarating all the way back to the boat club; one of my best rows ever. Rowing back, I thought about what the river had recently endured in the worst flooding and runoff in decades. If the river could clear itself of the debris and muck that had poured into it, then I could do the same with any old baggage or beliefs that keep me from being fully alive like the river, with all its crazy swirls and eddies.

I got a sense of ease as my attitude shifted from tense and fearful to fun and joyful. And my perception of the conditions and how they affected me changed. It started out as survival and fighting the elements, and then shifted to sensing and feeling the motion of my boat, the water, the wind and my body. But the shift in me that day was much deeper than attitude and perception. I began to release an old belief and to identify with a new belief. In a single stroke through the water I realized that peak nature experiences are not limited to a few in a lifetime; they are always available to us, and its simply a choice to be aware of them and to receive them with gratitude. Until that moment, I believed that powerful peak experiences were rare and fleeting. My response was to try to hold on to the positive effects for as long as possible, to wish the effects would stay with me longer, and to fall into a bit of a funk once the effects faded, and too soon it would be back to the status quo and "that’s life" thinking. I could release that limiting belief now, knowing that the experiences of nature are always available and accessible to me if I am attuned to them.

So what can we do to be more aligned with nature? Well, nothing really. There is nothing we have to do, or change, or get. In fact, the less we are doing (and thinking), the more space we have for awareness, willingness, intention and conscious choice to align with nature. That space may be cultivated in meditation, or through art, or music or rowing, etc. But most importantly, we can hold that space when we simply are going about our daily lives with all the accompanying storms and swirls and eddies and turbulence that are part of our relationships, responsiblities and communications. We can stay attuned and receptive to the continually available opportunities to shift our attitudes, perceptions and beliefs. One of my teachers explained that its simply matter of "changing the channel". I now think of mine as the "river" channel.

Resources

Would you like to listen to the RedShift ezine? It is now available as a podcast on iTunes. If you have iTunes, simply open your iTunes program and then click on the iTunes podcast link on this ezine’s menu. If you don’t have iTunes you can download the mp3 audio file by clicking on the archive link on this ezine’s menu.

My friends know I’m as much of a music freak as I am a rowing freak. Somehow I always find great music for my topics. This month, its Coldplay and the album is X&Y. Its great rock, the lyrics are inspiring, and it helps me keep my ‘river’ channel tuned in without effort and with maximum enjoyment. If you are an iTunes user and would like to buy just one song from the album 99 cents)..my favorite is White Shadows.

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