Page 165 - THE ENDLESS WAVE | Skateboarding, Death & Spirituality

THE ENDLESS WAVE | PART TWO
Sure your energy might feel more reserved and essentially yours if you are avoiding everyone and everything and isolating yourself, but how will that encourage you to connect with others, serve the community and share your gifts and talents with the world? If you are fearful of being vulnerable and close yourself off, you also run the risk of compromising friendships, rela- tionships. It’s the same door in and the same door out. Living in constant fear of expending your energy or picking up on others’ energy and emotions can make you paranoid and withdrawn.
In the context of your Life-Force Energy, the gift of sensitivity is sensitivity. It’s through the availability of the preferences to shield or not to shield, that one can develop their awareness and understanding of how different energies can affect them. As you open yourself up to others, you open up to yourself too. Your decision to shield your energy might depend on the context and environ- ment that you are in. For instance, you might like to shield yourself more in a very crowded environment that can leave you feeling exhausted and stressed, while with close friends or family, you might like to ease off on the shielding so that you can be more emotionally available and vulnerable to them.
You can allow yourself to adapt to your situation, for you would still want to be able to benefit from being around others, while still being able to flourish emotionally and energetically. It’s personal preference to shield or not to shield your bearings or energy and they are decisions that can support the de- velopment of your own inner wisdom on and off your skateboard.
Every once in a while, you might feel the need to do a replacement or service of your bearings and carry out a degreasing, cleaning and lubricating ritual. You’ll know when it’s time, when your bearings aren’t rolling as smoothly or are making noises that you didn’t hear before. The need for deeper spiritual maintenance can be characterized by factors such as recurring or unresolved behaviours, feelings of being stuck or lost in life, experiencing fear and trauma, attracting similar experiences, people and relationships into your life and unprocessed, buried emotions. These things can impact upon your ev- eryday life, personal and professional relationships and your overall health and wellbeing.
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