The BOLD (Bend and Stretch)
It is difficult to remember, as we sit almost perfectly still at home, that our best stance is flexibility. How can we need to be flexible when the days are, as many have noted, unfolding in an eerie Groundhog Day. How much flexibility is needed moving from the bed to the desk to the couch?
It takes flexibility to imagine what is possible when so much it not. It takes flexibility to move from a familiar set of habits and options into an unfamiliar landscape and still find ways to acquire what you need. It takes flexibility to move between curiosity, excitement and despair (all results of looking at the news, for instance).
We must be flexible. How can we discover our own flex points and stretch into them?
The Whisper (Ride the Wind)
Imagine a small stand of trees. Older, more substantial trees populate the center while the edge is ringed with green shoots and younger plants. Now imagine a wind blowing through. Imagine that it is a gale force wind driving debris before it and latching onto the leaves and branches, bending and twisting as it goes.
Which trees will survive?
Some of the little trees will bend and sway, aided by the greenness of their wood as they respond to the gusts. The older trees—some will bend as well. They’ve been here a long time and have weathered many such storms and know how to ride the wind.
Others, too sure of their position and too attached to the way the prefer to stand will push back on the wind and shatter. Their unyielding, rigid trunks are too weak to withstand the gale.
Flexibility comes from being secure in essentials and open in details. In order to respond to the movement of the wind, we must know where our roots are. How are we nurtured? What do we believe? What are our most important goals?
Then we must become curious about what else is true. What do the times require? In what way is the wind blowing? How can we move forward?
To cultivate flexibility, consider the following questions:
Where are my roots? Consider what is most important to you. Knowing your mission, vision, goals and values helps to make good decisions with agility.
What is the nature of the wind? Determine your resources and challenges.
What do I need and where do I want to go? Define the nature of the question you want to answer. In order to apply flexible methods to answer essential questions, we must know what the questions are.
How else might I move? Examine your habits and your go to way of responding. Then, apply imagination to see what other way you might respond. Imagine another person in the same situation and determine what they would do.
Real balance comes from engaging in the intentional wobble, from choosing to weave and bob even when we desire stability. In order to maintain control, we must, paradoxically, relinquish it in the calculated risk of flexibility. If we allow our flex points to dry out with disuse or with rigid control, we cannot pivot when flexibility is the best response.
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