Intention and Flow

 I find living with deliberate intention to be tiring.  I don’t do it nearly half as often as I should, but that is partly due precisely to the fact that deliberate intention is tiring.  You have to expend energy on living a life that consists of conscious activity aimed at pursuing a goal or objective.  It is far easier to react to things as they come up rather than try to do things that will lead you down a path of your choosing.  One could use the analogy of swimming: it takes more energy and is more tiring to swim against a current that simply be swept away by the current.  It’s the popularity of this imagine that leads so many people astray.

Although actions guided by deliberate intention take energy, they do not have to be exhausting.  And simply riding the currents will most likely result in your going places you don’t want to go.  It is a common misconception that getting swept away is the same as going with the flow.  It is not.  Flow is a magical, wonderful thing.

Flow is when your intention and the current upon which the Universe has set you are perfectly synchronized.  It is actually far easier to find flow than one would think.  It is also far easier to expend the energy to get yourself to the right current, to find the place that coincides with the your place in the Universe, and follow the flow than it is to recover from being swept away by some errant current.  Eventually, if all you do is follow the river while in a raft, you’ll find yourself somewhere you’d rather not be.  When you find your way to that flow, you’ll invariably wind up in the best possible place to receive the bountiful gifts the Universe has to offer.

I guess the moral of the story is to use your energy wisely.  Use intention, find flow, and don’t the waste time and energy needed to correct course after letting life just sweep you away.