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Keep it Flowing




         The flowing, fast moving water of a river is far less likely to contain impurities than trapped water that pools in swamps and hollows. Standing water is an incubator for bacteria, and it’s often contaminated, unsafe to drink, and a breeding ground of mosquitoes. When feelings are allowed to flow through the body, they too are safe because they do not poison or destroy the container that conveys it. Like trapped water when our emotional life is blocked, put off by distractions and the busyness of life, it becomes toxic. When pressure builds over time, it seeks out other routes, and the blocked energy eventually floods, spreading all that has developed in this damaging state.
          Once we open to our feelings as they arise, we create the causes and conditions of mental and physical health. This is what acceptance based, inner awareness entails. Because it’s so vital to our well-being, it’s not a practice to put off, any more than breathing, sleeping, or consuming nourishment.

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