Cease looking for flowers!
There blooms a garden in your own home.
While you look for trinkets
the treasure house awaits you in your
own being.
Rumi

This may sound like a peculiar title for a blog article. How can anyone become a flower? Humans, after all are animals not plants.

A typical dictionary definition of the word ‘flower’ is:

1. The seed-bearing part of a plant, consisting of reproductive organs (stamens and carpels) that are typically surrounded by brightly coloured corolla (petals) and green calyx (sepals).
2. The finest individuals out of a number of people or things.

The above two definitions in essence speak about the finest expression of a person or thing. A flower is often regarded as the part of a plant that best expresses it beauty and height of development.

Flowers are the bridge to immortality, as with their pollination and subsequent seed production, they ensure the continuation of the species into the future.

Their array of forms, colour and fragrances have inspired poets and fills us with joy. Their beauty and aesthetics are seen as the finest expression of plants and makes them stand out from other parts of a plant.

Flowers are an exquisite expression of the life force that flows through living beings. It is this ‘flow’ that brings me to my definition that you may not typically find in any dictionary.

What Is A Flower?

A flower is something or someone that flows. Flow entails a steady or continuous current or stream of energy or movement.

Flower Power

Those glorious blooming expressions of plants we call flowers are the ultimate ‘flow-ers’.

A plant’s flower is part of a process that helps continue the flow of living energy or life force transcending time. Flowers through their array of colours, shapes and scents attract pollinators who feed on the synthesised energy of the sun and become part of the plant’s process of continuing the life force into the future.

How To Be A Flower

So back to the question: How do you become a flower?

Well…you already are. Sometimes, however, we are better flowers than other times.

In The Flow

Have you ever noticed that those moments when you have felt ‘in the flow’ stand out from other moments that make up your life?

I smile like a flower not only with my lips but with my whole being.
Rumi

You may have felt a bubbling of energy from within erupt into a smile, an unmistakable feeling of joy that you cannot contain.

Legstasy

It can come about from the seemingly most insignificant events.

For me, to walk quietly through a forest can bring me to this state of joy. After periods where I have been extremely busy with work and ‘life’, a walk in nature helps me reconnect to the flow and energy of nature.

I feel a sense of deep gratitude embrace my heart, and with the sound of every deliberate step I am lulled further into a state of ‘legstasy’.

On A Roll

For you it may be when you feel ‘on a roll’ with a task at hand where time seems to pass quickly as you engrossed in the activity at hand.

Time Standing Still

For others, there is a feeling of time standing still, where mere moments seem frozen, like when two people meet for the first time and fall in love at first sight.

Greatitude

And for others it may simply be sitting quietly in the morning sun on a winter’s day reading the newspaper in a cosy spot, purring moggy on your lap and feeling a sense of gratitude take over.

Ebb and Flow

It is difficult to always maintain this flow – that when related to humans, some call happiness. Just like the tides that ebb and flow, we too have times when we have our ups and downs.

Yet it isn’t a ‘bad’ thing to not always feel ‘happy’. I don’t believe happiness is something that necessarily means that we always must maintain ‘positive’ emotions.

Rolling With The Punches

We are part of the energy of the universe – there are cycles and seasons and it is more important not to be fixated on positive emotions, but instead on our ability to ‘roll with the punches’, to develop resilience, to be flexible and open to change.

By continually ‘rolling’ we can be like the proverbial stone that gathers no moss. It is important to not get weighed down by baggage along life’s journey.

Happy Medium

Happiness isn’t about focusing on the ‘positive’ and avoiding the ‘negative’. It is about maintaining a sense of equilibrium, that we call the ‘happy medium’.

Poetry In Motion

I have included a number of quotes from Rumi as he to me was the ultimate flower. He was known as the “drunken Sufi” because he found ecstasy in dancing, poetry and music. It is thought that he would turn round and round while reciting poetry. It is this dance that formed the order of Whirling Dervishes after his death.

Becoming A Flower

So even though we are all flowers, most of us are not consistently very good at being one. Below you will learn how you can learn to become a better flower and experience greater happiness in your life.

To be a flower we must learn to ‘flow’. A flow isn’t about extremes. Too much is a ‘flood’ and to little is a ‘drought’.

A flood of emotions can make us live a life of continual ups and downs that can in turn lead us to feeling bereft of emotions.

Equanimity

Think about the Buddhist ideal of equanimity. What happens in life isn’t good or bad, it is what is. What is important is how we interpret events. In fact, if we maintain an attitude that life is here to teach us, then everything that happens in life enriches our lives…again, to maintain a ‘happy medium’ becomes a matter of how interpret and ‘react’ to life’s gifts.

The Victor of Circumstances

We can become the victim or victor of circumstances. The choice is yours.

Stream of Thought

What I have found really important to become a flower is to remember to ‘flow like a bubbling spring or stream in a mountain forest’ that never runs dry even in extreme weather.

At times the flow is less and at other times it is more, but overall, it maintains a steady continuous flow or current.

Staying Current

It isn’t always easy being a flower. One great way you can practice is to ‘stay current’.

It is easy to allow our thoughts to get mired which removes us from the present moment. This in turn can affect our flow.

Repeated thoughts where we may put ourselves down, such as: ‘I’m not good enough, I’m an idiot, I’m too fat, I’m not loveable’, I’m not smart enough’ can hamper our flow.

Thoughts of the past, or excessive worrying about the future, guilt, shame, sadness, and trying to control things that are out of our control can see us shrivel up.

Staying current is about being in the now and not allowing heavy thoughts block or stem our flow.

Ebb Only

Being in continual state of ebbing can lead to chronic dis-ease, both physical and mental.

Ebony is a dense dark hardwood that sinks in water. When we ebb only, our energy becomes blocked and dense, and we too, like ebony, can sink to the bottom or keep us down ( which we call ‘depression’).

Blocked emotions, such as depression, anxiety, sadness, anger, resentment and guilt, over time can lead to physical ailments and disease. Emotions are ‘energy in motion’ and when we block them this energy must express itself in ways that allow energy to flow, albeit, not always in ways we would like.

Flower Tips

So what would you have learned so far about being a flower?

1. To be a flower you must learn to flow.
2. To flow is to allow energy to move steadily and continuously in a current or stream.
3. To ensure that the stream of energy flows we must continually be aware of our thoughts and how we interpret life’s events.
4. It is important to foster a sense of equianimity to maintain flow. Being open to change and developing resilience are tools that will keep us ‘moving forward’.

Currency

Maintaining a steady flow or current will make you an exquisite flower. Life is about constant flux and change. To be a flower more often we must learn to flow continually.

Have you ever thought about the word ‘currency’. When it relates to money, it is an energy of exchange. When we hoard money or give into greed, what we are really doing is giving into fear. It may be the fear of lack, that some time in the future the ‘flow of money’ will stop.

Eboniser

When we are being too tight with money we in turn restrict its flow. Dark dense thoughts of fear of lack, can lead to greed and miserliness.

Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, is what can happen when we allow dark dense thoughts to ‘ebb-onise’ us. Dickens describes him thus:

“The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.”

Not exactly what you would call a ‘flower of health and happiness’.

Ebenezer Scrooge is an example where stopping the flow of currency can have a physical affect on one’s well-being.

Change & Exchange

I’m not advocating spending your very last dime or giving your life savings away to reach ultimate happiness. Instead, if we want to flow we must maintain our status as a flower.

A flower maintains a steady flow. It is better to give a little regularly than to give a lot sporadically. A small gift that costs only a few dollars or costs nothing like a heart-felt bunch of flowers from your garden, given more regularly will ensure that you keep currency in your life to flow.

Giving & Receiving

Giving need not be about money. Giving of yourself is more important.

Time is money, but time given to others is where riches lie.

What is the Heart?
A flower opening.
Rumi

Giving from the heart, whether it be a compliment, a smile, or helping out friends, family or strangers opens your heart.

The heart is a strong energy centre and the vibrations it emanates can powerfully change your life and that of others. One tiny insignificant act of kindness or compassion can blast through blocked energy.

Receptor

Just as we need to be more generous with giving we need to be equally open to receiving. If you are not open to receiving you may experience feelings of unworthiness which may stymie or disconnect you from the flow. We may say things such as ‘you shouldn’t have’ or if you go out to dinner you always insist on paying for yours and other’s meals instead of accepting their offer sometimes to pay.

Receiving gifts makes you a ‘receiver’. You become ‘tuned in’ like a radio to the universe, God, the creator, whatever you may want to call this energy, to gift you with blessings and abundance.

Another way to look at it s that when you accept other people’s gifts or compliments graciously, you become a ‘receptor’ in the flow of communication. Just like at the synapse or gap between two nerve cells, neurostransmitter receptors ensure that the message is transmitted.

Acceptance

Acceptance is as much a part of being a flower as is giving. When we accept we are saying it is Ok for good things to come into my life and that you are worthy of them.

Acceptance may also mean no longer expecting things to be different then they currently are. Acceptance will reduce suffering that stops the flow.

A plant accepts the gifts of the earth, the sun and the rain to grow. A plant cannot say ‘I don’t like where I am growing’ and decide to walk to a place that it likes better. We too need to accept to grow and flow.

Surrender

Be crumbled.
So wild flowers will come up where you are.
you have been stony for too many years.
Try something different.
Surrender.
Rumi

Sometimes we need to surrender if we are to remain a flower. Often when we hold onto things, emotions, past events and perceived wrong doings by others we stop the flow of good things entering.

Letting go of the past is incredibly brave. It is when we show great courage to forgive that we are brought back into the flow.

Move It Move It!

Like the words from The Lion King film, “You’ve got to move it! Move it!”. When we feeling anxious or depressed, we are restricting the flow. We are slowly choking our flow.

It is in these moments of feeling ‘stuck’, where thoughts weigh heavy upon us, it is time to ‘get physical’.

Sometimes to shift negativity we simply need to ‘get physical’. Physical energy can clear away and release trapped emotions.

Trapped emotions are ‘demotions’ – dark demons that keep our emotions captive.

Listening

A white flower grows in the quietness. Let your tongue become that flower.
Rumi

Listening is one of the greatest things you can do to keep the flow moving in your life.

Listening entails being wholeheartedly present to another person. Listening may also mean listening to yourself. In quietness can you give yourself the opportunity to really hear.

Both listening to others and yourself require you to be quiet and still and fully present. By being present we gift others and ourselves simultaneously.

Flowers Are Gifts

It isn’t surprising that we give flowers to others. Their beauty and fragrance and the simple act of giving has the power to move us.

Whether they are given romantically, or to celebrate a milestone in a person’s life, or in sympathy for the death of a loved one, flowers can help shift energy. Flowers have the power to unblock energy, and so do you.

You Are A Flower

When you are a flower you become a gift to humanity. Some of the greatest figures in human history were the most exquisite flowers. Buddha and Jesus come to mind.

Jesus, in his last hours, in an act of forgiveness against the wickedness of those that crucified him and the crowd, cries out, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know what they do’.
Luke 23:34

Go With The Flow

Just like all of us, my life ebbs and flows. When I was younger I would experience great floods of emotions, raging storms and other times of drought and darkness. Yet the older I become, I feel I am discovering the power of the flower.

Flower Power

When I can maintain equanimity, when I am able to not see things as being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but just ‘as is’ I am able to harness the power of the flower. When I see every experience as a gift then I am able to maintain flow.

By changing the way we look at things. By changing our perspective we can allow new thoughts, ideas and solutions to appear.

I experience ‘the power of the flower’ in the past few months. I have been wanting to start a project that would help enhance crucial habitat and food sources for our vulnerable urban koalas on the Gold Coast.

Not Experiencing E-koala-nimity

I approached local government with my plan which they flatly rejected as they said they were overwhelmed with existing environmental projects to consider any new ones. This left me feeling a little frustrated and angry that beauracracy should put another nail in the coffin to the survival of our urban koalas.

To wander in the fields of flowers, pull the thorns from your heart.
Rumi

Frustration, anxiety and anger are simply signs of blocked energy. I was not being a flower. These emotions become more intense as the months passed as we continually were called out to more and more koala rescues.

It was like a stream that had met a large immovable object and the waters began to build up. The waters became still and dark and threatened to burst their banks.

Synchronicity is Flow In Motion

Even though it was clear I was not flowing steadily, the build up of water was trying to find another way around the obstacle. Sometimes if we sit in this stillness, we give ourselves the opportunity to see things differently and for new possibilities and energies to arise.

This is exactly what happened. A series of events lead to us releasing a couple of koalas on private land. The build up of waters had found a way around, under or over the immovable obstacle. It meant that I could side-step the immobile object called the ‘local government’ and focus on private land instead.

This led to a series of seemingly chance encounters, events and meetings that conspired to bring my plans together. Just like happiness isn’t all about positive emotions, so too, flow can often encounter obstacles that slow them down but doesn’t stop the stream entirely. The flow may be slower but it doesn’t mean things are not flowing.

It has been an incredible journey of synchronicity that started by releasing koalas on private land. This led to gaining permission to plant koala food trees on this land, together with being offered many trees at the right time as well as being told about a government grant at the eleventh hour. The synchronous events continue to flow and astound me.

How To Flower

To be a flower we need to flow. Just like a plant, there are times when we are in flow or in flower, and other times when we are not.

It isn’t easy to be a flower continuously. Yet it is very possible if we remember one fundamental secret.

Flower Up

If we are able to make each moment the finest expression of who you are you will become an exquisite flower ? .

When you are in the flow. When you are rooted in the present moment. When you are not burdened by stress, anger, anxiety or depression you have the power to create magic in your life.

When you are in the flow, God, the universe, the universal energy will gift you with synchronicity, abundance and fortitude.

Remember to bask in the light of the present moment and witness yourself become the most beautiful flower.

True beauty is a ray that springs from the sacred depths of the soul, and illuminates the body, just as life springs from the kernel of a stone and gives colour and scent to a flower.
Rumi