Practitioner Articles
Flow Vs Force by Kathryn Ottobrino
Flow vs Force
So lately I’ve been getting a message to write a blog post. There’s been a little voice in my head, my intuition I suppose.
It’s been saying “it’s time to write a blog post.”
I’m not actually surprised, because I’m putting together the content for a workshop at the moment called Ignite Your Intuition. We tend to teach what we’re working on and what is showing up in our own life.
I haven’t actually written a blog post since June last year. So much has happened in my life since then, it’s been quite an amazing journey and I want to share a little bit about why I’ve chosen to write a post called Flow vs Force.
I GUESS YOU COULD SAY FLOW VS FORCE HAS REPRESENTED THE LAST TEN MONTHS OF MY LIFE. IT’S SOMETHING I’VE ALWAYS STRUGGLED WITH – ALLOWING THINGS TO FLOW.
I come from a very strong sales background, I was in corporate for many years and you may know that in those worlds, you tend to work more at a ‘force’ than a ‘flow’ level. Some would call it being in the masculine.
To give you a snapshot of what’s happened in the last ten months, well I went off to Bali in August and I did an amazing detox. I came back from Bali and fear set in. That little voice in my head telling me “go back and get a job, go back to stability, go back to corporate and to sales.” Rather than sit with that, go deep within, and really tune into what I needed to do, I chose to buy into the fear and I went and got myself a full-time job.
I wasn’t surprised when two months later, I lost the job and I was back to square one. Meanwhile I wasn’t working on my business and wasn’t doing what I loved and what I was called to do.
Rather than jump off the cliff at that time, I got another job! Another full-time job; a stable, secure income. Crazy hey, I guess one would call that forcing things out of fear.
Three months later to no surprise, I lost that job.
Now, a little bit more about me and my past career and history of where I’ve come back from:
- I’ve never lost a job
- I’ve always gotten jobs when I’ve gone for them so this was a SIGN!
What happened in that six months is I’d gone after job after job after job and I was buying into the fear. It took me months to get each of the two jobs and then within a few months I’d lost them.
I GUESS YOU COULD SAY THAT I WAS COMING FROM A PLACE OF ‘FORCE’, NOT ‘FLOW.’
But we live and we learn!
That was how force was showing up for me in my life; the universe was also pushing me to listen to my intuition this time.
So when I lost the second job, I decided to actually stop, listen and get into the ‘flow.’ I started working more from my intuition, I worked heavily on myself doing lots of different self-development courses and I put a really big intention out there that I wanted to come from a place of ‘flow’, not ‘force’ in my life. More so, I trusted in the process and I didn’t allow that fear to catch a hold of me.
Some say that timing is everything and I’m a massive believer in that. I guess I had to go through and learn those lessons to get to where I am now.
It’s not been an easy journey and I’ve actually struggled with the process in my personal life as well. My initial reaction is to push and to push. It wasn’t until I finally got it this year that things actually started to change. I don’t think I’ve ever in my life been in so much flow. I don’t think I ever imagined the things I’ve achieved in the last 6 months. Yes I do believe that you need to have a balance, and that’s something I’m working on at the moment with my business, but I also believe that the more you push and the more you force, the more you get the opposite result to what you want.
I’ve cried many tears in the last ten months about this. I’ve had moments where I’ve doubted myself over and over again, but you know what? I finally listened and I’m so glad that I did the work to get to where I am now.
It’s an ever-evolving journey for me and it’s something I’m going to have to work on continuously – staying in my feminine, staying in flow, staying in my creative – but I’m committed to the process and if you ask anyone who knew me two years ago, they would tell you that I was a very different person.
I guess my message to you all is that when you really believe in yourself and you trust in the process of what you’re currently working on, the flow will naturally come.
STOP, LET YOUR INTUITION GUIDE YOU AND LOOK OUT FOR THE SIGNS. THE LESSONS WILL NEVER BE WASTED!
One of the other things that’s really helped me stay in the flow and to continue to stay in that trusting place, is music and sound. It is so simple and easy, but shifts so much. Every single morning I put on one of my favourite songs and dance in my living room. That’s right! I dance with an intention of what feelings I want to embody more of in my life, and I allow myself to flow and trust in the process. I move all that negative energy sitting in my body. I stay in my feminine and I get out of my head and back into my body. I invite you to try this in your life.
I will be sharing more of how to tap into your intuition, creativity and flow in my half day workshop “Ignite your Intuition”. To book your spot click here, spaces are LIMITED.
