From Status Quo To Status Flow

Tips from a T-shirt Guy on Working Smarter and Living Easier

Graphic tees, like life, are most effective when the focus remains centered on the space around the actual slogan and artwork being cultivated. This allows the core parts of the shirt to be beckoned forth from the space, to hopefully arrive at a cohesive whole. I am almost always surprised by the designs that ultimately resonate most with people, but I've noticed the ones I cared least about the end result at the time of creation are often the best received. A successful t-shirt design has an immediate impact on both the wearer and viewer that is intangible and unnameable in its very essence. It is a shared experience, with connection at its core.

Similar to creating a memorable t-shirt, transforming the Status Quo to Status Flow is a process of creating space within ourselves for life to move through us, as opposed to us moving through life. It’s a way of living willfully without working so hard to enact our will. In the status quo, we struggle to preserve and validate the circumstances that are present in our lives, while in the Status Flow, we let go and accept our circumstances to become more and more present to the purpose of our lives.

 

If change is the only constant, then how we come to navigate these changes determines the quality of our life experience. The changes we most often remember, and cling to, tend to be the most pronounced. While the myriad of micro changes occurring at any given moment, are often lost in the frenetic shuffle of our daily lives.

5 years removed from the most climactic of changes in my life, the devastation of Hurricane Sandy (see chapter 6 in the Story), I’m beginning to understand how subtle, imperceptible alterations dictate the enjoyment of our lives and the eventual impact we have on others much more than the overwrought unraveling’s.

Cataclysmic events can temporarily clear the lens in which we’ve come to see and understand our lives, but it is within the everyday menial and mundane moments where lasting change is truly forged.

This is a craft that takes a lifetime (or more), far beyond the scope of a blog post or my present understanding, but I felt inclined to share some insights that have helped most in my practice towards transforming the Status Quo into Status Flow. 

TIP #1: Tune Into Your Source Wisdom.

It begins with us envisioning who we want to be and how we truly want to live.  Until we have a real sense of who we aspire to be at our deepest level, we are a ship adrift in the ocean without a destination port. As a daily practice, try to allow 15 minutes in the morning to stretch a bit, take some deep breaths, and let anything that comes up, be as it as. This sets the stage for you to tune into your wisdom at the source.

Here is a Guided Source Meditation from Ken Page, Author of Deeper Dating, that will help get lead you towards your primordial intelligence. It's amazing the guidance and answers that will come up, if you do this practice consistently and earnestly. I keep notes on my phone within the free Evernote app that includes the date and the wisdom that was delivered each day, so I can refer back to these gems again and again. 

TIP #2: Find Comfort in the Discomfort

As we continue tuning into our Source Wisdom on a regular basis, we begin to recognize underlying patterns preventing us from pursuing what we truly want in this life. The broken record of our longstanding defense mechanisms in the form of fear, doubt, and shame are stirred up. It's crucial we recognize these fears and doubts and become aware of our strategies to suppress, distract, or flee from these unpleasant feelings, so we can begin to stay with them. Face them head on. Do not run. Hold them. Honor them. Cherish them. They exist for a very legitimate reason and represent a crucial part of our past that no longer happens to serve us.

We must make friends with our demons in order to ever truly change. Our inner naysayers, the deep rooted defense mechanisms we acquired long ago as kids, are just that... children of our own heart clamoring for love and attention. Remember that we are the space that holds them. We are the IS-ness of what is.

Cherish these feelings for what they are and keep moving forward with and through the fear. Come back to the silent knowing where the deeper truth resides, and continue to do so. With time, our tolerance for discomfort begins to expand, and we are eventually granted access to entirely new realms of possibility in any given moment.

TIP #3: Self-Care Outweigh Personal Gain

The majority of us are regularly operating under the false assumption that if we're not working harder than the next person or pushing ourselves to the brink of exhaustion, we'll be passed over or left behind. I for one have operated according to this principle for the majority of my life. The devastating experiences of Hurricane Irene and Sandy forced me to let go of many attachments in one fell swoop and take stock on my overall approach. However, our longstanding tendencies are insidiously entrenched deep beneath the surface, and it was not long before I was back to my workaholic ways. 

Entering the Status Flow, working smarter, and counter intuitively becoming more productive in the process only begins when we make our state of being the principle priority over profit.

This is a direct extension of the increased awareness being cultivated in the first two tips. It's rooted in our own self love and it frees us to take the time necessary to care for ourselves, as opposed to grinding towards our goals and crossing off items on our list at any cost. It requires us to listen to our bodies and take action accordingly. If we need to rest, rest. If we need to step away from what we're working on, and go for a walk outside, step away. The more we practice this, the easier and more natural it becomes. We begin to recognize when we're "forcing" the end result, as opposed to beckoning it into being. 

TIP #4: The Process is the Reward

The explanation of this tip is coming shortly. I wanted to enjoy the process of writing this blog a little longer. :)

 TIP# 5: Pace Yourself

I decided to take my own advice and pace myself on this blog as well. I'll be adding to this shortly.