This morning I padded down the stairs with the cats in the cold, pitch black before dawn, filled with a sense of newness and readiness.

My inner voice said: go look out the window! 

On any typical morning, the first thing I opt to look at is the coffeemaker. But I peeked outside the kitchen window into a glittering skyfield, and right then I caught a shooting star!

I couldn’t believe it! But then, of course I can believe it. It’s the miracle of life, swirling through everything and every moment that is, and reminding me that my coffee-drinking self is part of that, too.

The great illusion of our lives is that we are separated from that flow. And in order to bring something to fruition, we must struggle, labor, and effort to see that through.

In my current life experiment of un-struggling, un-laboring, and un-efforting, I have recognized the wild truths that have been continually bumping up against my ingrained Labor Value System. 

One of the toughest lessons to integrate? Being available for the creative flow of life. For the manifestation of creativity. For the inflow of inspiration, clarity, and genius.

Not an outflow. An inflow.

We are always concerned with outflow: Crank it out. Produce. Make. Do. And fast! This is what we are taught, this is how we live, this is what we accept.

So when we opt to make ourselves available for the inflow of creative inspiration, prosperity, and wisdom, our alert system gets triggered and we think:

That’s daydreaming.
I’m not being productive!
This isn’t real.
I’m wasting my time.
I don’t deserve that.
I’m not focusing.
I will lose money/time/energy/respect/etc.
I don’t know how.
I should be working.

This is the inner dialogue of someone who does not yet grasp that we must cultivate our inner garden in order to nurture the seeds of what we desire to grow, flower, and come to fruition.

Cultivating an inner fertility and prompting this heady inflow asks us to let go of grasping, rushing, and pushing. It’s a dreadful lesson, but here’s what I have witnessed:

When we grasp, we cannot receive.
When we rush, we cannot see.
When we push, we cannot realize.

The question is: how can you become available for the deeper desires of your life to be cultivated?

If we consider our life as a sacred garden, we have to consider how we nourish the soil, tend the borders, and invite the pollinators. (Not yelling at the flowers to grow while the weeds run rampant!)

If you are feeling the struggle to bring about change, I feel you. But squeezing your eyes shut, demanding results, and pushing through will only bring about greater friction.

I recommend that you shift gears.

Try an experiment for five minutes. Ask yourself:

How may I be more available to the inflow of what I seek in these five minutes?

Listen inwardly. Heed the message you receive. And see what happens. I guarantee that you will feel better, clearer, and inspired.

This is how we come back to the inflow, grateful receivers of the spark of life.

Maybe you will even catch a shooting star.