Embracing Our Natural Flow: Mindful vs. Mind Full

When making a quick stop at your local gas station or quick mart you'll notice an overwhelming number of drinks like 5 hour Energy, Boost Energy, Monster, and 5150 Juice promising to increase your energy levels, wake you up, or perform some
other eye opening miracle. It seems that the days of a simple cup of coffee can't create enough energy to keep pace with the never ending rush that's taken hold of modern society.

With the advent of the technological boom, it's not unusual to find ourselves surrounded by laptops, smart phones, MP3 players, computerized tablets and a host of other technological marvels that we have convinced ourselves are necessary for daily life. With these additions to our routine many tasks have been made simpler, but at what cost? Meals are disrupted by the musical tones of cell phones announcing incoming text messages, e mails, and social media updates, family conversation around the dinner table, in many cases, has been replaced by the murmur of a television, connections between friends and loved ones, reduced to e mails and online game playing and sleep is disrupted by the buzzing glow of an incoming update. While each technological advancement has brought us amazing entertainment, improved overall production and eased aspects of our daily living, they have also placed a strain on our personal lives and our health overall. The inability to unplug can have detrimental effects; stress related complications such as insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, migraines, and cardiovascular disease are only a few of the ways that ongoing stresses can manifest in one's body. Is there a better way?

The natural world holds a wealth of knowledge in the form of a constant lesson-true connection is sustaining, detachment and the resulting chaos result in breakdown. As a wilderness skills instructor and nature enthusiast, I have learned that quiet, mindful observation is an acquired skill which enables one to connect with what I like to call the Natural Flow.

In the wilderness, animals, plants and Nature itself seem to calibrate with the sustained laws of nature. In every moment, every presence within the wilderness emits a concentric wave of energy that is picked up by other inhabitants. There is an unspoken language, a flow, in which every present member acknowledges itself as a part of the greater whole. To live, the constant interaction of cause and effect, life and death, reap and sow, becomes the daily rhythm in which each member acknowledges and "flows" within. Regardless of what is presented-a storm, a fallen tree, a dam, a drought, beings of nature acknowledge the presence and adapt their inherent rhythm and flow to the given situation.

Each of us has our own flow, our own rhythm, our own speed that helps us to feel happy and connected with ourselves, the inherent speed of life that our body and spirit thrive within. Regardless of what is presented to us in the form of challenge or need-adapt and improvise in accordance to your inherent flow. This is not always easy, but challenges don't appear to obstruct, but instead to instruct. When you begin to observe your daily life, habits, stressors, schedules, connections, etc. and you begin to find that your scale is imbalanced, it is your time to fall back and regain your inherent rhythm. Personal health is about personal responsibility, we have the power to observe and make choices to better ourselves each and every day. Taking pause, rebalancing our individual rhythm, can be as simple as turning off a device, connecting with a loved one face to face, or sitting quietly, alone in a natural setting, observing the delicate float of a leaf as it falls from a branch to its new home on the surface of the earth. In moments like this one can truly realize how simple life truly is and how complicated we tend to make it. Rekindle your rhythm and regain your natural flow, feed it and sustain it. The resulting gift will be one of great richness-health and happiness.

Yours in Good Health,
Eric Rodriguez MH, CCI
The Culpeper House