BE WATER

 

YES!

…was my answer when Danielle asked me if I want to join her for having a swim in the ocean.

7am we leave the house and a couple of minutes later we arrive at yet another endless Brazilian beach. Morning mistiness rises from the feet of the green hills, which embrace the ocean on its sides.

I let the shimmering colours of the golden sand, the white daze, green hills, blue sky and a mix of white crestwaves and a darker blue, mudgreen water being received by my eyes.

From my inside bliss unfolds and becomes visible as a smile on my face. I feel deep joy, groundedness and my connection with the element of water.

“Danielle, we are in Brazil, can you imagine that?! “ I am saying this several times to a Brazilian woman.

The sea welcomes us with its refreshing coldness. As soon as I am knee-deep into the water I instantly perceive the powerful force of nature, being almost pulled away by the currents. Living at the Mediterranean sea, I am not used to experience nature in such a raw version. Someone once said to me:  “Ah, you are from Mallorca? So you are living at a big swimming pool.” Now, I get the metaphor.  

I sense my fear.

 “Hello fear, what do you have for me?”

— “Don’t go in the there, the currents are too strong, you will be swept away and drawn into the wide ocean. Danger. Avoid at any cost.”

“Ok fear, what else?”

— “Don’t do that, stand very firm, don’t move around, hold on to the seafloor and push against the waves when they come. Also, turn your back to them. It is scary to see how big, huge and wide the ocean opens, imagine where it would take you. You will drown. Be resistant and fight against.”

“Ok, what else?”

…

“Yes?”

The voice of my conscious fear is much more quiet. It starts by being present. Sensing the sand on the floor on my feet and the water on my skin, I am looking towards the open ocean, reading the waves.

— “Be present, soften.”

— “Don’t resist. Be water.”

I heard the famous expression “Be water, my friend” oftentimes. Even though I loved the quote already, I never got the full sensation of it. While being in the water being water magically turns words into a 5-body experience.

Connected to the element and swirled around softly by its savage waves I drop my resistance.

Being with.

Soft body.

Receptiveness.

No pushing, no fighting against what is, no wanting a swimming pool instead of what is in front of me. This is the moment when I experience an inner calmness, even though life bounces me around, including hitting rock bottom.

The wildness of the ocean teaches me a great life lesson: Don’t resist what is. If you don’t hold on, it will become effortless. I integrate the experience and soak it all in.

“Oh, and enjoy!” as if a voice is calling after me….

I cannot discern if that’s my fear or my joy speaking to me and I don’t care: I just follow the instruction of this voice, thinking, “I will”, while the life guard sets the red flag. A clear warning sign of today`s roughness of the ocean. For me it says: “Be water, be receptive”.

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