guest post: what highly sensitive people can learn from water

Written by: Lauren Littlewood

I remember very little from college biology. The one thing I took away from it was that water is amazing! It is literally why we exist on this planet. It is why it was so epic when scientists found liquid on Mars. Water can change forms, go through rock, tear down a building, and yet it can create life.
 
What can water teach us about ourselves?
 
In society, we are taught to fit into boxes, follow specific paths, act and accept life in a particular way. Many of us live in Groundhog’s Day. Living the same day over and over again. Never really having many goals and living without passion. Many of us are depressed, have to take medications to calm our anxieties and have become stagnant in our lives.
 
There is a reason you are not supposed to drink water that has been stagnant for a long period of time. Stagnant water harbors bacteria and probably many more horrible things in it that when consumed can poison its thirsty victim and potentially cost them their life.
 
So, what happens to us when we become stagnant? We become bitter, angry, anxious, depressed, and develop other emotional bacteria that poisons our life.
 
See where I am going with this?
 
What does healthy water look like?
 
Think about the most beautiful body of water, perhaps a beach or waterfall. What do these bodies have in common? They move! Any happy and healthy body of water has a system of movements. It cleanses all the bad stuff and has many things like rocks and minerals to feed it goodness, making it safe to consume.
 
So, like happy and healthy water we must move, both physically and emotionally. If we don’t have a challenge, we become stagnant and unhappy. If things become easy and boring you need to create challenges. Get uncomfortable.
 
If you feel cold and flat in your career or in any life circumstances, then shake things up. Do something that makes you uncomfortable. Switch jobs, do something you have always wanted to do, or learn to play the drums. It doesn’t have to be huge but it should take some convincing to do. It should give you butterflies, and maybe make you nervous.
 
When water meets a great challenge, like a boulder blocking the river, it finds a way to continue on its path. Yes, it clogs things up for a minute but it goes over, under, around or through its blockage.
 
When meeting great challenges, be like water and find a way. Whether the challenge is  something painful like a traumatic event or something stopping your momentum towards your dream, you must persist. You can overcome.
 
So be like water... move, challenge, and overcome. After all, you are 70% water so it is already in you, you just have to tap into your tsunami-like power. 

​Lauren's Bio: As a child I was a very sensitive person and very empathetic towards everyone and everything. This is probably why I because a vegan, a therapist, a yoga instructor and a health coach. Through my life I have struggled with rage issues, anxiety issues and depression. I have learned many techniques to overcome these issues which I love to share with others. If we are not lifting each other up, then what are we here for?

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