Out of Rigidity and into the Flow

As your faith is strengthened, you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will and that you will flow with them to your great delight and benefit. Emmanuel Teney

Yesterday, I was reading about rigidity.  I am aware there are situations where I become rigid and I use it as a coping skill.  I apparently feel the need to keep tight control when certain situations appear, based on fear from previous experiences. The article pointed out making choices with rigidity can become a slow growing habit.   Perhaps, we begin with food.  We become selective about what we eat, which is a good thing, but then we carry it to an extreme where we can only eat very few selected items.  When eating at a restaurant or in some one's home, our food rigidity can become an obsession driving us to no longer even eat with others.  Meals are a part of socialization and relaxation, but not if we isolate ourselves. The information also mentioned being rigid with friendships.  We can become so selective about terms of relationship we begin to eliminate good people from our lives, ending up living in isolation as no one lives up to our extreme expectations. This resource on rigidity also mentioned how it can spread into all areas of our lives such as clothing.  We can start out being selective, and graduate to rigidity by only wearing a certain brand or color to the point of obsession which can drive friends away or at the very least annoy them. So in these three areas, rigidity can isolate us in very subtle ways.  In order to stretch and grow creatively and in a healthy manner, we must stay in the flow and not isolate.  We need people as much as we need privacy.  We are entitled to choose our food, friends, and clothing, but anything to an extreme can be bad for us.  Rigidity can lead to narrow mindedness, excluding us from many wonderful thoughts, objects, and experiences.   We still have choice when we are in the flow, but we are also open to diversity and change.

Losing the Thread ...

He who every morning

plans the transactions of the day,

and follows that plan

carries a thread that will guide him

through a labyrinth of the most busy life.

Victor Hugo

Perhaps this is my problem, losing the thread that would otherwise guide me through the labyrinth of my life.  I do not like structure after a long life of limits and boundaries.  I quit wearing a watch around 5 years ago as my day has an altogether different cadence without it.  Sometimes I think twenty minutes have flown by when in fact it has been an hour and a half!  Then in other parts of the day, I think I have wasted too much time exploring, but in real time only minutes have passed.

I am amazed when I recall my mother declining an invitation to play the card game Canasta because she had to clean the house.  Are you kidding me?  If I even think someone might call, I am ready to jet!

Not having this thread would explain why my day so easily unravels.  I will have wonderful intentions, but my focus seems to shift as I wander from room to room.  I'd like to think of this lack of discipline as spontaneity.   I am open and willing to change course with the slightest of ease.

Without the entanglement of this thread, I am much more apt to just go with the flow, to allow myself to be called, and to be where I need to be.  I don't suppose there is a right or wrong, just a choice of how you might want to be.