Go Luck Yourself! Session 4

As we delve into the second half of the 'Go Luck Yourself!' project (remember there are a total of 6 sessions), we are again building on what we have explored so far: embracing luck, the 'good luck mindset', and noticing and creating opportunities. Have you started to notice any changes in your experience of 'luck'? Please use the comments section on any of these blog posts to share your experience.

[If you have stumbled here without having watched sessions 1-3, then you should take a look here to be suitably introduced to the Go Luck Yourself! project.]

In this session, which you'll see is in 3 parts, we look at the value of 'going with the flow'. It sounds rather glib, but the idea is that adopting this approach to many things in our lives may be one of the most powerful ways to allow ourselves to be influenced by luck, chance, and unplanned events. Anyway, let's see what he man in the black shirt has to say...


...and when you're ready, here's part b:


Please take a moment to listen to this mindfulness practice after you have watched Session 4b and before watching Session 4c. You are encouraged to also try listening to some or all of the other short mindfulness practices offered by the counselling service at Bucks New University here.


...which brings us to the end of Session 4! Thoughts? Please feel free to post comments here on the blog, and if you're keeping a Luck Journal then #DFYLJ!

Session 5 will be available from Wednesday 9th December. Follow the blog to get an update when it goes live :-)

To flow or not to flow?

I was just getting used to the idea of 'going with the flow'. I had started to become quite comfortable with the notion that these four words actually carried with them a quite profound philosophy of how to go about one's daily life. Going with the flow meant accepting those things in life that were outside of my control. It meant learning not to resist change, and it meant allowing events to unfold naturally rather than trying to exert unnecessary control over them. At first, this was sometimes a difficult approach to take, as we all like to do what we can to gain as much control as possible in an attempt to handle life's uncertainties.

And then I go and flick through The Rules of Life by Richard Templar. Rule 10: Only dead fish swim with the stream. He seems to suggest that, in fact, 'going with the flow' isn't all it is cracked up to be, and we shouldn't let ourselves be 'swept away', but instead that life is supposed to be a struggle.

So which is it? To flow or not to flow? That is the question.

Fluent

I would love to live
Like a river flows
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.

John O'Donohue 1956-2008

Yin and Yang of Choice

As I mentioned in a previous post, called you get to choose, it seems to be rather important to realise that we always have choices. In another post, I linked to a YouTube video under the heading go with the flow. The way these ideas link together is captured poetically in the following excerpt from the book Profound Simplicity by Will Schutz:

The principle of choice describes the reality that I am in charge of my life. I choose it all, I always have, I always will. Because, at bottom, the world is simple, there are paths in the universe, a natural flow that makes my choice, simple and obvious. I discover these natural paths when I am open and receptive, when I sense what is inside and what is outside my body. As you and I acknowledge our self-responsibility and as we open ourselves to the paths, we flow together. Our paths are harmonious and we create a joyful community and society.

Will Schutz, Profound Simplicity (1979, p. 78).

Go with the flow

Another four-word phrase that has been going round in my mind for some time is 'go with the flow'. Some people seem to be better than others at doing this, allowing themselves to be guided by their environment and not getting unnecessarily upset when things don't always go to plan.

There's more I want to say on the idea of going with the flow, but for now I thought I'd share with you the video I stumbled across on YouTube (at the same time allowing me to show off that I'd figured out how to post YouTube videos to my blog!).