Feel the Rain
‘Some people get wet and others feel the rain. These are wise words by Bob Marley. I thank him for them because since I found them, they have stayed with me as a life goal. I want to be that person who feels the rain!
In order to feel the rain, we need to be willing to accept an experience as a whole, accept the difficult aspects and embrace the opportunity it brings. In Ubud during a week of experimentation with some healing modalities I had not experienced before I came to know this to be true. On a personal recommendation I tried a session with a particularly renowned reflexologist – I knew it would be painful but perhaps hadn’t anticipated the extent or depth. When I left, I was expecting to feel revitalised but instead my back (that he had identified as troublesome), felt painful and I felt disconnected from the previous gains I had made through months of work with my chiropractic network healer back home. And so continued both my discomfort and my discontent. The negative thoughts were flowing and disrupted me from the blissful state generated by days of sound healing, chakra balancing, breathwork and meditation.
My journaling brought me another perspective as is a common occurrence for me. I was asked to welcome the reflexology as an opportunity to bring another dimension to my total Ubud experience. This is what I wrote: ‘It may feel like it broke some harmony but harmony can be restored on another level and you can be more harmonious than ever before, in a deeper way. That is how revitalisation works – take what is known and already present and made and add new information, experiences, people and renew the original so it is better. Take the reflexology experience in the same way. Be grateful and welcome the re-calibration with your physical self that it brings.’ Strangely or not, when I embraced this philosophy the ‘re-calibrating’ began and my back and whole body feels whole again. To bring that new aspect into my physical being I had to look at the experience in a totally different way, one that sought the positives rather than the negatives. I also had to be brave in the first instance to try something new and potentially painful – that is how we move forward and facilitate and embrace change in our lives. As I recently wrote in another blog post, in the words of Brenee Brown, ‘I choose courage over comfort’.
As part of my week in Ubud, I also visited a wonderful traditional Balinese healer and one of his messages was for me to keep learning and to share what I find. This is one such learning – I want to keep trying new experiences and adding them and assimilating and accommodating them into what I already know and into who I already am. In doing so, I want to feel the rain and not just get wet!
