The Step of "Reflection"
How do we know the meaning of a coincidence?
In the process for courting synchronicity that I call LORRAX (Listen, Open, Reflect, Release, Act, Don't give up), the step of reflection is important, yet hard to pin down.
It is in the reflection step that we connect the dots and begin to guess what the meaning of a coincidence may be.
Reflecting on our felt experience
Reflection starts with the self. Self-reflection helps me become aware of what I'm feeling.
For instance, today I had time to pause and sit quietly for 15 minutes. In that quietness, I was better able to notice not only what I was feeling in the moment, but also what I had been feeling over recent days.
I felt some good feelings, and I felt some difficult feelings.
In that quiet moment, suddenly I felt tears come as I thought about my friend who's struggling and my own hurt around the situation. Shortly afterwards, I felt laughter thinking about my cousin's wedding last weekend, and how good it felt to be with my family.
Becoming more receptive to what we feel
I was momentarily struck by an awareness of how many things I feel each day. I'm not always receptive to or aware of what's happening within me.
Why is that? I'm often just trying to go about my day. I don't have time to be impacted by everything.
And yet, when I'm in flow, these small moments of sadness and joy come and go easily--they don't slow me down, but they do make me more available to life.
Be an instrument of flow
When we take time and space to reflect, we become a willing tool of life, an instrument of flow.
By feeling the world as we engage with it, our own inner experience can become a gift to others through the music of synchronicity: through offering the right advice at the right time, by intuitively making a phone call to a friend when they need it, through just being ourselves and being willing to be impacted by the world.
Transmute difficult emotions into caring and loving emotions
When we become more porous to our emotions, I also think we develop more control of them.
Not silencing them, mind you, but channeling them to the right output, so that we can stay in flow. When we suppress emotions, we get off our equilibrium, so eventually we need to blow off steam.
Good leaders under pressure can transmute those difficult emotions into caring and loving emotions and stay top of their game.
Practice:
Notice as things happen to you this week. Name the authentic feeling. You don't have to do anything about it, but do try to be truthful with yourself. “I feel angry.” “I feel suspicious.” “I feel proud.” “I feel uncertain.” Be a witness to how life is impacting you this week.