Shrinks

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage – Anais Nin – 1903-1977, Author

I was listening to a recording by Derek Rydall who just released a book called Emergence. In the recording he tells the story of a near death experience he had while snorkeling in a coral bed.

He was following some fish and not paying attention to where he was at and found himself trapped in the coral reef. There were fire coral around him which release a toxin that kills, and the narrow corridor that he had swam down was like a maze. No matter where he turned there didn’t seem to be a path back out. He panicked, he prayed, and was barely able to keep himself from touching the dangerous corals that were all around him. His strength was giving out and he saw himself playing out the “he died so young” scenario’s in his head. Then all mentally and physically played out, he surrendered – not a giving up, but rather an acceptance of this is it – I will die here – what he described as a death of his ego.

Immediately following this release of all resistance, a huge wave came over the bed and he was lifted up onto the only safe piece of coral there was and standing up, he could see the path to get out of danger and back to the beach.

When I saw this quote this morning, it reminded me of Derek’s story. We all have resistance to something in our lives every day. That resistance could be to stopping a bad habit, to starting a new habit that we know will improve our lives, to making that phone call or having that conversation that we know we need to do to stay in integrity with ourselves.

So many things we have this tiny bit of resistance to. Resistance creates a drag. It shrinks us and devours our energy. It is like walking around dragging a 100 lb suitcase behind us. It slow us down in achieving the things we want in our lives.

When we release the resistance and do the “thing” you can feel the weight drop off. It is like the difference between fighting to swim upstream against a current that is trying to take us down the waterfall and going with the current, where you only have to occasionally course correct your direction, without expending a lot of energy.

If you find yourself dragging throughout the day, take a moment to look at what is going on in your life – look for where the resistance is. Expand your courage, stretch your mind and/or body, and take the leap of doing the “thing” that you are resisting. Feel the energy expand in your body. You will literally feel the weight drop off your mind/shoulders.

Take a moment to see yourself in Derek’s shoes in that coral reef. The surrender to accept “what is” and then the weight drops off. He isn’t terrified any longer. He is one with the Divine. And at that moment the Divine says, “I am here” and lifts him up to safety so that he can see the answer that in his panic and resistance he couldn’t see before.

That place, that space, is where we all can go, when we surrender to “what is” and ask ourselves, “what else is possible” and let go of the resistance.