The Importance of Being Flexible

Today is April 1st, typically the day to make a fool of someone with a joke. Well, the joke is on me and my garden today, as I woke up to 5 to 10 cm snow. Just a couple of days ago I could walk around without a jacket and risking a sunburn.

I couldn't resist going for a walk, I did it early in the morning as I love to be the first to make marks in the snow. I got to experience a bit of a safari observing how animals and plant were reacting to this unexpected turn of events.

It made me reflect on how humans tend to resist unexpected event, how we tend to plan our lives to prevent as much as possible that something surprising cross our roads. It has become really important to exercise control over as much as possible of our life, it feels good, gives a sense of being safe. 

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But are we really in control? 
Is that the way to keep ourselves safe? 

I walked around with this questions and I started to think that being able to face the unexpected could be a more valuable skill than trying to prevent it. After all no one has managed, to this day, to really prevent or keep under control much. Natural disaster keep afflicting developed country that have measure in place to prevent those very disaster, people get sick of the illnesses they vaccinated against, just to give a couple of examples.

When we try to control and then we find ourselves in the situation we were trying to avoid, the natural reaction is frustration, hopelessness, disempowerment.

Imagine to develop the skills needed to face the unexpected, being able to handle surprises that come on your path, being able to adapt and get the most out of the situation, even see the collateral beauty maybe. When you manage to do that the feeling that comes with it is empowerment, satisfaction, harmony with yourself and your environment.

If you compare the state of mind and the emotions that these two situation depicts it is easy to choose for the second. However, for some reason, most of us keep choosing for the first one. Why? My guess is that is has to do with fear that create the need for an illusion that you can actually control your environment.

The opposite of fear is an open trusting heart. An open heart is flexible, adaptable, expansive and can give you control over how you react to things rather than the illusion of control over what is going to happen.