Flow. What does it mean to flow through life? We can imagine what it must FEEL like. Fluid. Soft. Balanced. Connected. Peaceful. Joyful. Never too much, and never too little. So how do we reconcile our work lives with our play lives, bringing about that illusive “work-life” balance? Or do we?

Let’s redefine balance. It is not a cup half empty versus full paradigm. It is not a see-saw of energies. Pain versus pleasure. Is that how you see it? Giving up what you hate to enjoy what you love? What if you could embrace your sensual nature in the workplace without sacrificing your professional integrity?

To live within your sensual nature is to capitalize on your innate feminine or masculine nature by living true to the feelings that arise inside of you, feelings such as softness or force, empathy or activism, our need to nurture or guide, listen or direct. How do you feel in a workplace that represses natural and healthy expressions? Do you find yourself putting on a shell of masculine qualities? Practicing feminine skills that feel like a sheep’s cloak? Our workplaces are meant to foster a spirit of communication and unity, because we are human beings - masculine and feminine human beings designed by Spirit to work with one another in a harmonious dance.

What feelings arise from your soul within in your current workplace? Take some time to meditate on this. Notice any resistance in your body when you reflect on typical tasks, conversations, relationships, and the values and principles of the company - resistance that manifests as cold, tension, or other areas of the body that don’t feel good. Also notice harmony in your work - manifested in warmth and feelings of lightness, clarity or expansion when reflecting on your workplace.

Before you exclaim that, despite the feelings of resistance, this is the only job you have that pays the bills - I’m not going to tell you to leave, for that is your choice and your path of learning and growth. But what else are you resisting in your workplace that you DO have power over?

Each of us have an innate feminine or masculine power that enables us to more easily flow throughout life, for it keeps us true to our authentic nature. As a woman, your power is your softness, even when confronted by force. As a man, your power is force, even when face to face with softness. But how could that be possible - to simply be YOU, as Spirit created, and still thrive.

To be balanced in your energies is to allow your authentic joy, pain, strength, softness, fierceness, gentleness, passion, weakness, dominance, vulnerability, and sincere emotional and spiritual self guide your intelligent actions in every waking moment. For some that means using creativity or intuition. And to get to that place of creativity and intuition requires learning an inner stillness through devotion to a practice. Peace does not come without effort, and neither does living an authentic life.

Your sensual self embraces all the parts of you and allows the experience of emotions, filtered by your intuition, to guide your response to that which impacts your daily life. What does that mean? To be authentically vulnerable means to trust in that aspect of yourself that draws in that which may cause pain or discomfort; and yet allows intuition and creativity to transform that pain into deep understanding and potential for empowering leadership. To be authentically forceful means to trust in that aspect of yourself that may be misunderstood; and yet has tremendous potential to provide clarity, direction, safety and comfort. The sensual self thrives on its own authentic experiences, finding passion and pleasure in the experiences of life that shape us and guide us, because they are divinely our own. And within our own divinely sensual lives - WE FLOW. 

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Dana Anne Hutchins is a mystic, yogini, green activist, mentor, artist and spiritual teacher. Dana believes in the power of the local community to generate change that is powerful enough to influence the world. Learn more about Dana at Beyond Stillness - Spiritual Teaching with Angels: An integration of spiritual teaching, leadership, wisdom, beauty, balance and creativity, where students learn to become catalysts for new earth change. Dana also plays at Simple Creative Life, where she teaches strategies for living a balanced, intuitive life.