For example, if you feel sadness and you don't try to resist or suppress it, the feeling will register vividly in your awareness and then naturally dissipate. However, there are times when we try to avoid the feeling of sadness, and we unintentionally block the flow of our emotions by tightening our bodies and energy.

This is when the resistance traps the emotion in our bodies. When we prevent the emotion from flowing freely, the holding pattern can become chronic, creating rigidity in our being.  Especially if it becomes a familiar pattern.  This rigidity limits our ability to fully feel emotions, and it also acts as a barrier between ourselves and others.

The sadness that is held in this way can colour our entire experience, making life always seem a little sad. On the other hand, if we simply allow ourselves to experience life as it is in each moment, there is a much smoother flow.

As a Senior Teacher in the Realization Process, I’ve found that the more I practice, the more I naturally experience the effortless flow of life. Let me explain: The body can be perceived in different ways—as physical matter, as energy, or as stillness. The most subtle experience of the body is stillness, and we can learn to attune to this deeper dimension of our being. Even if you do not sense it now, that doesn’t mean it isn’t present.

The more I connect with this subtle level of being, the more naturally I settle into this dimension of life. Thoughts, emotions, physiological processes, and external circumstances all move through this underlying stillness. Through practice, we learn to open ourselves to both the deep stillness and the dynamic flow of life simultaneously.

For instance, when I meditate and the postman knocks at the door, it doesn't disturb me. I just get up, answer the door, and return to my meditation without any disruption.

It wasn’t until I read a quote in one of Dr. Judith Blackstone’s books recently that the penny dropped and I fully understood the concept: “The more we attune to and become that stillness available to all of us, the more the movement of life happens without obstruction, resistance, or distortion.”

Rather than experiencing this stillness just while I meditate, it is gradually becoming a way of life.