“You need to clean out the stream,” Barry said.
Barry is our ‘man.’ He takes care of our little cottage in Ireland.
Clean out the stream? Who cleans out streams, I thought. Streams take care of themselves!
So I ignored Barry.
And then the rains came. And the yard flooded.
When the rain finally stopped (which, by the way, isn’t often in Ireland), I went out and walked along the stream that crosses our property. Sure enough, it was in pretty bad shape. Years of neglect had left it full of debris: rocks and trees and logs and clumps of leaves; brambles and branches choking it off. 
It definitely wasn’t flowing very well.
(Perhaps you can see where I’m going with this?)
So out I went with by bow saw and shears (when it wasn’t raining… which, did I mention, isn’t very often in Ireland?). For days, I cut and cleared, and standing in the midst of the stream with my (brand new) Wellingtons, I pulled all sorts of junk out of the steam.
And the stream flowed again. It was beautiful to look at. I could hear the sound of it from the house trickling through the property. And when it rained, the water ran deep and swift.
It was clear.
We allow out lives to get choked off too, just like the stream. With projects and tasks and to-dos and worries. And pretty soon, things aren’t flowing very well.
It would be a good idea (says Barry) to clean out the stream.
There are some really great ways to do this that don’t require a bow saw… or Wellingtons.
- Journaling: I don’t think that there is any more powerful way to unclog one’s head than the practice of journaling. Julia Cameron, who wrote The Artist’s Way, prescribes what she calls morning pages: Three stream of consciousness journal pages the very first thing in the morning. Like flushing the toilet of the mind, she says. But whether you journal first thing in the morning or at some other time of the day, a regular journal practice allows you to take all of those swirly things that make your mind feel cloudy and mushy and move them out onto the page. It’s an amazingly freeing experience.
- Meditation: This used to be thought of as some ‘fringe’ thing that only whackadoos, new agers or Elizabeth Gilbert on a field trip did. But the science is pretty compelling. Meditation calms and clears the mind. Think about one of those old winter snow globe things that you had as a kid: You’d turn it upside down and shake it up; all the ‘flakes’ would swirl around; and then when you set it down, all the flakes would settle. And the globe would be clear again. That’s what meditation does: it settles and clears the mind. And the practice over time will have a profoundly grounding impact on your life.
- Aerobic Exercise: Being actually in your body, whether through walking, running, biking or swimming, moves you quickly out of the madness of your mind and connects you again with the earth. And even if you find yourself back in your head as you move over the ground, thoughts and feelings flow more smoothly. Aerobic exercise is, of course, wonderful for your health and physical wellness. But the oxygen that you feed yourself and the hormones that you stimulate will refresh and renew your spirit as well.
With all of the pressures that daily life serves up to us, it is easy to forget that, in order to bring our highest and best selves to the world, we need to nurture ourselves first. So that we can flow.
Take some time: clean out the stream.
yes… (on the meditation) and yes… on the exercise!
I’ve never been much of a journal-er. It feels too… unproductive to me. That, and when I have worked at keeping a journal I find 1) that I write for an audience, anyway, and mask the truth… and 2) when I re-read it… I find it embarrassing and stupid.
But that’s me.
LOVE my quiet drives in the car, walks in the woods and, running keeps me sane.