Sandra Ehlers is a Self-Integration & Kundalini Awakening Guide, Trauma Informed Yoga Meditation Teacher, Event Facilitator, Reiki Master, and Writer. Her work is dedicated to inner union – not only through expanded awareness, but as a lived, embodied experience of wholeness in the world.
Ever felt frustrated about how difficult it is to relax fully into ease, joy and flow? You may actually be keeping yourself from feeling it. Addressing the root cause will allow flow and passion to become a natural part of your life.
You are probably familiar with flow: the feeling when you find yourself fully absorbed in an activity for the sheer joy of doing it, rather than because you were supposed to do it. It's that intrinsic motivation, often combined with the ease and challenge of having just the right skill level, that brings us to a state of absorption where time loses importance. We are fully present in the practice.
When we resist flow
A key ingredient for flow is to feel that it's safe to be absorbed. Safe to release any worries, doubt or overthinking, and just be present with what is in front of you – and enjoy it. You could call it a state of being "carefree".
In many family systems, carefree can be a negatively charged word. The family ideal has been to earn acknowledgment and love by working hard, even if that comes with suffering.
When this belief is internalized into our body-mind, it makes a part of us feel unsafe about being carefree. We begin to doubt that it's really in our best interest to experience ease. We may avoid the feeling in unconscious ways; perhaps by perfectionism or overworking, by taking on excessive responsibility for others, or simply by overthinking.
This can have far-reaching consequences in life. We can end up with exhaustion, or in jobs that do not fulfil us. We struggle with easing into joy, and stop ourselves from doing what actually excites us.
Moments of flow may feel completely fine when contained in a side hobby – an accepted container for "free time". But to form your entire life around it, and feel carefree all day, every day? That can feel like diverging too far from the reality we were taught to believe in. After all, we have never experienced being supported without hard work!
And if we do choose to bet on our own reality; one where we can be supported in doing what actually fulfils us, this deep part of us knows that we are separating from the reality of our family system. This is the root cause of pain around allowing a more effortless life than we've been taught.
When realities diverge through awareness expansion
Choosing our own highest self-alignment tends to come with some degree of separation from familiar people, places and situations. This is because choosing self-alignment allows our awareness to expand.
As our awareness expands, the old worldviews we were taught no longer fit. They now seem too small – feeling claustrophobic to the expanding self. The more we align to our own inner truth, the more painful the old limiting environments become.
As we continue to choose self-alignment, there may even be situations unfolding that force us out of our comfort zone and into separation from the old reality. This happens to give us space to explore the feelings and possibilities of our new, expanded vision.
I often say that living with others who don't share your reality is one of the most painful experiences we can have. There is, as always, hidden medicine within that pain, too. As we learn to accept diverging realities, it can teach us just how valid it is for each of us to have our own reality, based on our own experiences.
It is an ever deepening humbling into the truth that we are not here to make anyone feel differently about their reality, or about us. That is wholly up to them. All we can do is decide if their choices match ours, and if not, move on to better compatibility.
While it may be painful, choosing to accept the truth of diverging realities may be one of the most liberating decisions we can make.
Choosing self-alignment and flow
Coming back to flow, accepting that an old reality holds you back from fully pursuing your true excitement, and that you prefer a new reality where your passions are supported, can allow you the “permission” to choose your own perspective. And then stick to it no matter what.
Although it will surely be challenged (shifts in belief system tend to be), it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if you keep choosing to trust your new, preferred reality.
I say that not only because what we truly believe in always ripples outwards into life. But also because excitement is the physical representation of soul alignment. What could support you better than coming into deepening alignment to your own soul?
Choose to trust this, over and over until you begin seeing it reflected in your reality, and it will! Because excitement is a self-supporting experience. It attracts anything you need to pursue and experience more excitement.
I've seen this confirmed in my own life, and in the lives of many others. Even so, full relaxation into flow has taken my ceaseless choice to continue to trust. Even when the world repeatedly confirmed how supported my excitement always is!
It also required conscious deep release of old stories in the form of tension from my physical being. A re-programming of the body-mind that it is safe to allow that total ease, and it is safe to trust that the pursuit of excitement, ease and flow is always held and supported.
And while reprogramming ourselves takes consistent conscious effort – what could it be worth to live the life of ease you've always longed for?
Align to passion
In my work to help people liberate their life force, I continue to see that flow and joy are much more than short-term mood fixes. Flow is the meeting point between doing and being; our most aligned state of being. It is an active meditation, which rewires the mind to find this optimal balance on its own. And with that, it puts us on a path to lasting joy from within.
We are guided into flow by feelings like excitement, joy and love. In other words, these are all key parts of our inner compass, guiding us ever deeper into passion and purpose. To create a positive feedback loop of increasing excitement, we begin by choosing to trust these feelings and act on them.
Do you wish to support your sense of inner freedom, joy, and boundless love?
Learn more in the upcoming 3-month Infinite Love Immersion, specifically designed to help you experience boundless love, joy, passion and ecstasy. Working with Kundalini, it is suited to empower any spiritual awakening journey regardless of personal faith, free from dogma. A rare, powerful form of Kundalini activation is also offered as an option, with the immersion offering a unique safe container for the awakening of Kundalini.
Also make sure to check out current workshops, and how you can work with me on my website.
If you want to learn more about deep healing, joy, spiritual awakening, tantra, and other fascinating topics, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook – and join the Satya Sangha Newsletter for invites, offers, free resources and more!
Sandra Ehlers, Self-integration and Awakening Guide
Sandra Ehlers is a Self-Integration & Kundalini Awakening Guide, Trauma Informed Yoga Meditation Teacher, Event Facilitator, Reiki Master, and Writer. Her work is dedicated to inner union – not only through expanded awareness, but as a lived, embodied experience of wholeness in the world. The focus is on transforming and integrating all levels of consciousness; physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual – creating a foundation for deepened present-moment awareness, equanimity, aliveness, and ultimately, bliss. Alongside workshops, classes and retreats, Sandra offers 1:1 support to self-alignment through the Completion Process and other modalities.
