One of the ways we build strength and confidence is by respecting and aligning with the forces of nature.
Growing up by the beaches in Sydney Australia I spent a lot of time in the ocean body-boarding and body surfing.
I remember being very young how dad would sometimes take us to watch big storms and swells. We’d sit in the car and watch the huge waves rolling in at the beach or crashing onto the rocks around the points.
I could feel the power of the waves.
It was more than just the waves, it was the power of nature flowing through the crashing waves.
So, a deeper respect for the power of the ocean came through spending time in it… especially anytime I’d paddle or swim out in big surf. It’s one thing to appreciate it from a distance, it’s quite another to be in it. Being out in big surf it quickly becomes very apparent how insignificant we are.
I remember a few intense experiences being caught under huge crashing waves. Barley able to take another breath before being held under by another one… I felt pushed to the edge of my endurance and breath capacity where I thought I was going to die!
Aligning with the Forces of Nature
While it’s incredibly humbling to be at the mercy of huge waves, there’s also a deep sense of strength and confidence that comes when we align with the forces of nature. To ride waves, especially big ones, we have to align ourselves with the force of the wave.
The strength and confidence doesn’t come from being more powerful than the wave. We’re still insignificant relative to the force of the moving water. Our strength and confidence comes from our ability to understand and align with this force of nature.
We can’t direct the wave, we can only align ourselves with it in a way where we can truly enjoy it.
We develop a relationship with the wave.
We develop a relationship to the forces of nature flowing through the wave.
Stillness
The same principle of aligning with the forces of nature is true for stillness.
Stillness is always there in the background… Unwavering!
Feeling it brings such a deep sense of peace, clarity, stability, and a sense of home that our heart responds to. It also brings a sense of strength and confidence that comes from inside. A strength and confidence that when we feel it, feels like it is our natural state… We’ve just forgotten.
The challenge we face is that our mind is usually too busy to recognize stillness. Filled with never-ending thoughts, stories and dramas, we just don’t feel it. Which means we can’t rest on it.
We can see stress, anxiety, overwhelm, overthinking and emotional reactivity are symptoms of a lack of stillness.
But when we learn to quiet our mind (and you can learn!), we begin to feel the stillness that’s always been there in the background of our experience. We can feel it permeating nature, life and us… our consciousness can then expand beyond the tiny band of thoughts, stories and dramas that keep us so small and disconnected from our heart and each other.
Build Strength and Confidence by Aligning with Stillness
We don’t create stillness, we align with it.
Just like the feeling of strength and confidence that came for me by aligning with the force of the wave, there’s a feeling of strength and confidence that comes when we align ourselves with stillness.
This in turn shifts the very foundation of our sense of self. From the instability of never-ending thoughts, stories and dramas to anchoring into the peace, clarity and stability of the heart.
Meditation is one of the greatest practices we have for cultivating this relationship to stillness. But one of the greatest teachers we have is nature.
I talk about this more deeply in a previous blog: Deepening Into Stillness And One Of The Greatest Teachers You Can Have.
Stillness flows through nature!
I invite you to be curious.
Feel into your heart.
Feel the forces of nature.
Feel your relationship to stillness.
Feel the strength and confidence naturally emerge inside you.
Just like aligning with the forces of nature, can you align with the forces of your heart?
Joy, enthusiasm, gratitude, peace, wonder, compassion and love (to name only a handful).
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