Reflections On My Journey to Oneness

#3 Skiing the Slippery Slope of Connection

Athletes call it the zone. Others talk about it as flow. Whatever you call it, most of us have had those awesome experiences while gazing into the eyes of a newborn child, coming to the aid of someone in a crisis, making love, playing with a pet, or losing ourselves in nature. In those moments of being totally present we glimpse what is possible when fear is not dominating our lives.

The first time I skied in the zone, I knew I wanted more. In studying this phenomenon, I learned that in the flow my body is balanced and I ski from my center. Beyond exciting, skiing is an effortless and a graceful spiritual dance. I lose what I think of as myself and become one with everything.

Skiing off-center is not bad or wrong. It’s just not as beautiful, much more work and not the fulfilling experience of the flow. My goal in skiing became learning how to spend more time in that state of oneness, and when I lost it, how to get it back.

It wasn’t much of a stretch to transfer my skiing awareness to how I lived my life. Realizing how much time I spent off-center, especially when confronting upsetting situations, was a sobering shock. Realizing the power and pleasure in that state of oneness I knew I wanted more than just occasional “Kodak moments.” Thus began my commitment to living more in oneness with my heart.

One of the things I like best about this analogy is that it helped me take the judgment off my heart-disconnected behavior. Just as in skiing, being off-center is not bad or wrong it’s just out of balance. Being human I will not be able to stay heart-connected all the time. But that’s not the main problem. Without the awareness that I’m off-center, I’m stuck and meaningful change is unlikely.

Once I’m back to center it is sometimes important to confront and learn about the fears and beliefs that closed my heart and got me off-center such as losing face or another person’s love (more about this in a later blog). Resolving the fears and beliefs that create my disconnection is how I am learning to stay centered more of the time.

An illustration of this skiing analogy is available in my video “Heart Symbol” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Bchn-Z1dc

• In what situations do you remember experiencing the “high” of being in oneness?
• What do you do to experience more of that in your life?

-- Dr. Jordan Paul is the host for Connections Radio Show, a  project of Humanity's Team. 

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Posted August 28th, 2010 by Oneness Blogger