Are You Cooperating with Spiritual Flow?
I may be controlling, but I'm not in control
Note from Nat: I will be doing an in-person workshop on Finding Spiritual Flow in Santa Monica, CA on September 16th. Find out more here.
It may look like I’m in control, but I’m just cooperating so closely with what is in control, that it looks like I’m in control.
I heard some version of that statement many times over the years while working with my spiritual teacher. Sometimes I believed it, other times I didn’t want to believe it, and thought maybe it was a copout.
The other day I found myself on the other side of the table saying something to the same effect, not as a copout but simply because that’s what it is.
It’s funny how the roles in life often get reversed, isn’t it?
In one of my first private meetings with my teacher, before working with him, he read my beads. He told me about my body-born conditions, about some of my challenges I came into this lifetime with, and how to work with them. As he talked to me, he drew on this piece of paper. I lost that piece of paper for years, decades, finally finding it when I was moving to Puerto Rico.
A big part of my life path, as he detailed it out for me, was cooperation. For years, I struggled to understand it. What does it mean? Who or what am I cooperating with? How do I know?
Over time, I experienced those answers in deeper experiences of what it meant to cooperate and who I was cooperating with.
When I moved to my island paradise of Puerto Rico, I was quite content to not work so hard, live simply, surf world-class waves, snorkel and spear fish around the reefs. I kept up with my podcast and articles, and worked with a few clients.
I definitely wasn’t interested in traveling. I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve been through a lot. I just wanted to relax and recover from all those “a lots” that have happened, and enjoy a quiet life of solitude.
That’s what I was happy with. That’s what I wanted. I was living my dream. Somehow, the life I desired was also in alignment with the Spiritual flow as it unfolded in my life.
Did I mention the part about cooperation yet? Well, eventually the flow shifted. Even though I was content as it was, Spirit had a different plan for me.
At some point, it became clear that I was now required to jump more fully into this work of connecting people to the Spirit within them.
I’ve learned over time that if I’m not cooperating with the flow of Spirit, It’s way of communicating gets louder and louder until I just can’t ignore it.
There was a big part of me that was really resisting what I knew deep down inside was coming. Especially the metaphysical aspect of what was being asked of me. I’ve dealt with more metaphysical forces and the consequences of that (including physically) than most people could understand, and probably wouldn’t believe anyways. So, I really wasn’t interested. I was content where I was, so my car vote was a big “no, thank you”.
But then the energy started backing up on me and effecting my health. I realized that resisting would only hurt me, so I surrendered and chose to cooperate (and my health got back on track).
At that point, it became clear that in-person events were going to be happening.
My friend Mark, who I recently did an online event series with, was going to be in Australia for work, and there was an opportunity to do some events together. Of course, the surf isn’t so bad in Australia either! So, I started leaning into it. I booked tickets and realized there may be an opportunity for an event in Los Angeles on my way to Australia. I was just following the flow…cooperating.
I will admit that I now have a custom surfboard waiting for me in Australia…not too shabby. :)
When someone tried to get information on aspects of the trip and get me to act on their personal desires, I just told them that the trip is in its own flow, Spirit’s flow, and I’m just cooperating with it. I don’t have the control to make it anything that it isn’t. It will tell me what it will be. I’m just flowing with the Spirit.
Basically, I heard myself saying a version of John-Roger’s “I’m just cooperating so closely with what is in control that it looks like I’m in control.”
I have no idea the outcome of these events, even whether anyone will show up, but I know that it’s in the flow, and whatever the outcome is, it's also in the flow.
It is fitting then that my LA event is called Finding Spiritual Flow and the events I’m doing with Mark in Australia are focused on Surrendering to Spirit.
If you are looking to come more into the Spiritual Flow in your life, then I would say it requires cooperation and surrender. How you do that practically is the subject of the events I’ll be doing.
Having spent years attuning myself to the Spirit I would tell you that the first step to cooperation is spiritual awareness, and observation can be a starting point into that. Another way is to simply surrender to that which is greater.
Once you get that, it’s just a matter of choosing to cooperate with That Which Is in control.
A business colleague who was quite athletic told me that the exciting challenge of batting in baseball is trying to hit a round ball, moving fast, with a round bat. When I was body surfing, I was dealing with nature: the time of the tide, the rhythm of the swell, the influence of the wind—but also a rich mixture in MY nature—my body tone, my confidence, my alertness, and more. Nat, I greet you in the waters of finding the flow of spirit. I can write a long list of factors that contribute to my cooperating with myself. Along the way, it can be helpful to consider each, individually, on paper. It can improve my practice to focus for a time on a small number of these “get ready” qualities. I can rehearse them in a ‘laboratory” setting where I have reduced the factors to keep it simple. I can evaluate my performance. When I excel in a few narrow qualities, I’m temporarily jazzed, only to discover I have neglected other crucial qualities. I outlast my own disappointment. Eventually I will want to test myself under live conditions, whether or not I FEEL ready. (I do and I don’t.) I bring along my mind and all my rehearsals. Yet to catch the wave, I’m navigating with other senses. I almost have to fall into it. For an instant, I must obliterate all concerns. Wow! I send my light, love, and full respect to all of us who are paddling out.
My tropical paradise is figurative. Let’s call it “Latersville.” Perhaps I have overstayed. Hmmm.
Sorry I’ll miss you at your workshop. I’ll be navigating my flow of Spirit in DSS6 that day. Hope you have a fun time in Santa Monica and in Oz.