Stretching to make a difference (3): Flow

[Nick Potter]

This is the third set of musings in a sequence on how yoga relates to action on climate change.
This post takes up the theme of flow, which involves the movement of energy. I have only recently started to find a good flow again, so I offer some insights on how that occurred and how this could relate to social movements.

Finding the flow by letting go
Progress in a yoga practice relies on letting go. There are many places in the body where tension and resistance can be found. These areas have developed over time, largely as a result of how our bodies have reacted to a lifetime of accumulated experiences. These obstructions do no shift through brute (i.e. violent) force or by exerting more force in the opposite direction. This simply intensifies the resistance, adds more tension, and ultimately does harm.

Ignoring resistance does not lead to progress either. Ignoring ‘problem’ spots only keeps them where they are or leads them to resurface in another form. Instead, it is important to be aware of difficult areas without being fixated on them. They usually offer an opportunity to learn something. By simply staying with something difficult, calmly and in a caring way, it naturally dissolves over time. Being curious about the source of any blockages/obstacles is also useful.

Much of this learning can be applied at a social level too. We can not move towards a better society if people do not learn how to let go of an existing order. Trying to force people to change will never work long-term. People will change when they are ready to. This change may come through their own volition, or when conditions in their environment change so much that they simply adapt to take the best option that they can perceive.

As such, I never aim to change my self or any person. It took me a long time to learn this. I am more interested in focusing on:
- what leads people to open up?
- what attracts people to make a change (i.e. towards something that feels better)?
- how can I create conditions to support people in making a shift?
- what inspires and excites people so that they keep making changes for themselves, when they are ready?

I also ask my self these questions when I find something blocked in my self.

Linked with this, I believe that fighting against anything (including any person, group or even global warming) is counter-productive. Fighting simply increases resistance and is a waste of my energy. Instead, I ask how I can play a part in supporting change. I see many people doing this, including many people in the Intersect Network. This is clear in many of the conversations in the Forum. For example, people in the Flightless Birds group are looking for alternatives to flying, without attacking anything. Most people in this group are considering the barriers, like the lack of attractive alternatives to long-distance flying in New Zealand, while looking at constructive ways to overcome these. Another example is the Beyond Left and Right group, which goes beyond the simple ‘us versus them’ mentality that pervades so much politics.

Going with the flow
There have been many times in my practice where my energy was misdirected. I got confused. There was no flow. This reflected some wider challenges in my life as I tried to find the best places to direct my energy. It may have also reflected the sense of “swimming against the stream” that many people in a social change movement can relate to. Going against the flow is inevitably tiring. It becomes a bit easier when many people take the same route. As salmon have learned, swimming against the stream is easier when they swim along side one another.

Rather than going against the flow though, it is also possible to change the course of a river. This involves removing obstructions, as described above. Water flows freely through the path of lease resistance. There are two options for changing a river’s course so that it takes a different route. One approach is to gradually erode a river bank on a daily basis, and hope that this eventually leads somewhere. Another approach is to start where you want the water to go (i.e. look for a new river mouth) and build a path back to the original river. This means getting out of the existing flow sometimes, probably in the still spots. It also means keeping a connection with the original river. When the final obstruction is removed, an old river meets a new course. The flow of the river shifts suddenly.

I have a sense that our (interconnected global) societies are actually coming very close to a deep shift in direction. Many people are actively building a new course for society. A coalescence of movements is taking place. Many streams are coming together. Paul Hawken calls this the largest “un-named movement” that the world has ever seen. Deep changes will emerge much more quickly than most of us could ever imagine.

Concentrating (on) the flow more fully
In the previous post I mentioned the use of focusing points (‘drishti’) in yoga postures. Focusing attention on these points does not just settle the mind. They direct the flow of energy. Where we place our attention is where the energy flows.

This observation, once again, is not limited to a physical practice on a yoga mat. Energy spreads outwards from us wherever we place our attention. If the attainment of environmental sustainability, social equality, human happiness and global justice are at the forefront of my attention, then my energy will help to create a world in which those exist. If I am attentive to the well-being of my self and those around me, then my energy will support this.

A key question that pops out for me at this point is: how can I/we focus attention to where I/we would like society to go, so that energy moves in that direction? Keeping a positive perspective seems to be an essential ingredient in answering this question. If I keep focusing on where I do not want something to go, then that is where my energy will actually flow. In contrast, as I suggested in a post on Eyes Wide Open, we will find and develop many benefits if we simply place our attention in a positive direction. This approach is also the essence of Appreciative Inquiry.

A couple more questions have also emerged for me: how can we (i.e. people working towards positive personal and social change) know that we are putting our attention in the best spots? How can we bring our energies together to create a stronger flow? I do not have answers for these questions. My own approach these days, though, is inspired by the idea of “organising with the lightest touch” (I am grateful to Toke Moeller for recently sharing that phrase in a conversation). Working with the lightest touch is the realm of effortless effort. It happens when there is excitement in the air. People play to their strengths. Everything flows. I have had a taste for this in some climate change-related events that I have been part of this year, including the Climate Freeze and Park(ing) Day. I also saw this occur with great effect at the 350 Day of Climate Action in New Zealand and internationally.

Some approaches that I personally find useful in my aspiration to work with the lightest touch include:
- Always “testing the waters” among a small group of people, whose views I dearly respect, early on to see if there is any interest or excitement in an idea.
- Alternatively, drawing attention to something I notice, if I get a sense that there is energy for something to shift. For example, that is why I got involved in this discussion on Palm Oil and why I am interested in this discussion on Travel.
- Always being clear about the purpose.
- Being open to see where suggestions and ideas may lead.
- When there is excitement to be involved in something, inviting people to get involved in any way that suits them. Organising is best when it is collaborative and based on people’s passions and strengths.
- Injecting a steady stream of enthusiasm (and a good dose of playfulness) into this process to keep it light.
- Fiercely questioning something if it does not seem appropriate.
- Dropping an idea if it does not excite people, or putting it away for a later date when the timing may be right.

I am keen to have a conversation with anyone who would like to add or adapt anything in this list. It is simply an experimental work in process.

I am also curious about what can occur when there is a marriage of stillness and flow. I need to be still (in my mind) to be sensitive enough to feel a flow. When everything is flowing, I do not need to think about a movement. It just happens.

The last part in a sequence: On a new blog!
The next post weaves together some strands from this sequence and adds a few more. I've moved this series over to a new blog called Moving Tides. That's my new home for writing this sort of stuff. It also brings together some other things I've been writing in various places.

[Kati Thompson]

Ditto Liv, thank you so much for developing and sharing this thinking Potts. There is so much wisdom here, and I have saved this for further reflection over time.

These ideas ring true in what I have experienced through my own practice, and what I value and aspire to, and I look forward to bringing more of these ideas to my mat, my sustainability study and work, and my daily life.

But in the face of widespread unsustainability and urgency, they also present a huge challenge to me to embody. I guess this is as much the daily practice as the asana and breath huh?!

Looking forward to your next post Nick, and to more conversations about how we hold the hope / urgency polarity...

[Liv Hollins]

Nick - thanks so much for your thoughts and articulation. This is a great contribution. I find myself thinking about this stuff lots during my practice, but articulating it is another step all together :) But I'll give it a (small) go, since i'm feeling inspired.

During my practice recently I've also been thinking a lot about the balance between strength and flexibility - in yoga it's quite obvious - and I think that's exactly what we need in how we make decisions, and what we agree to for moving our society towards being less reliant on fossil-based fuels for energy (and all the things that we use energy for - food, transport, etc).

I also think a lot about the importance of small, cumulative changes, and how these changes over a long time make a big difference. Although these changes don't seem obvious in my daily practice, they are really obvious when I compare my practice now to when I first began. The way these changes come about is subtle and very gradual. Not drastic and rapid. for me, this way of thinking about change seems to be a fundamental systems theme/principle to gain a 'good' result - climate change as a symptom is a good example - we have very rapidly released a lot of GHG's into the atmosphere, far too rapid for the rest of the system to evolve with this change to produce a result that works for humans (i.e. a 'good' result). The other parts of the global system are still behaving in the way that they have gradually evolved to behave, with a pre-industrial revolution concentration of GHG's in the atmosphere. The rest of the system is forced to absorb this rapid influx of GHG's in the atmosphere, but because of this forcing, some crazy and potentially catastrophic things result. Like acidification of the ocean. Which is not a 'good' result for the systems that humans rely on.

Yoga is such an overall enjoyable process (I mean sometimes it's way too confrontational... but relativity is important here, you can't have the good without the bad, yin without the yang and all that, right?), I never know what is going to come next in the process, and the more I practice, the better I feel about letting go of what I want to come next in the process. Right, better get back to my thesis now...