The End of An Era - Be Like Water My Friend
Monday 2 May 2022 - 11:00
At a lecture of the opening of Oceanic Imaginaries at Stedelijk Museum, an academic briefly mentioned the need for Europe to be this rigid structure of rules and safety measures. It instantly made me think about what we call “the rubber tile paradise”, which refers to the rubber tiles we find in kids playgrounds for safety measures. It’s a society in which the government has taken so many measures to protect its citizens that they always feel safe and aren’t encouraged to think for themselves or learn to take their own measurements for protection.
We could debate for hours about this concept, but as The Conscious Club we always feel the power of self development comes from learning tool sets that you can implement to make you self-reliant, confident and independent. Which for us opens the gateway of trust and self-love.
And if we love ourselves, we can learn to love others, and if we love others, this world becomes a better place. Full circle.
But a rubber tile society where we don’t learn to be self-reliant, or think for ourselves, will belittle our full potential as human beings. It opens the path of self-doubt, co-dependence and distrust. Because if you are not worthy of making your own decisions as an adult, why should anyone else?
A government that decides for you, thinks for you and labels your place in society - is a rigid structure of rules and leaves no room for autonomy.
It is exactly this structure which reminded me of the famous quote by Bruce Lee;
"Be Water, My Friend. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
Maybe now more than ever, we are asked to become formless, so we can flow to the undiscovered corners of self in search of new ways and routes towards new pathways in life. Where it shows us our own immense power as human beings, the power of adapting to whatever comes our way. Our body is 99% made of water molecules, if there is a teacher within, water is definitely one of them, and it’s teaching us to go with the flow.
Once we have the self-realisation of our own powers, we can become more confident to trust that the flow will take us exactly to where we need to be. And this is maybe one of the biggest teachings in life. The part where you have the confidence to belief in yourself and trust the path.
It may also invite us to understand our roots within. That coming home to the heart, is also where our home is, wherever that may be. Adapting and learning that settling in a space is asking us merely to take a form of presence. Because in presence, all else falls away in the vast space of nothingness. It is here, in the space of everything and nothing, where all of life unfolds.
With the heart as our compass, flow will show us the way.
And this leads us to where we are today. The choice of Charon and I to become like water, so we can flow to wherever life wants to take us. To be truly free from the structures that hold us back from our full potential.
We have never been afraid to follow our hearts, to go left when everyone else is going right, just because for us it feels like the right thing to do. We are not afraid to close doors, so others can open. And we have been blessed with the deep knowing of that whatever we do in life, it will all fall in place sooner or later. With this trust and confidence in the Universe, Great Mystery, God, Spirit or how you prefer to call it, we welcome this new chapter in our lives.
Where we will abandon the structured form a physical space, and move into a flexible form of beautiful collaborations at different spaces in our city. This means our program will still continue in a more flexible form.
We are welcoming playfulness, joy and intuition to bring us a new pallet of experiences we would love to share with all of you. Our wish to make this journey into a more personal one will find its shape and form in the coming months, as we take a few months off over the summer.
I can share that my path has been directing me to lead a spiritual year journey, where I will be sharing my spiritual teachings in a small group form. I am excited to see what will unfold. Charon is enthusiastic to finally have space and time to deepen her practice in search of what brings her happiness. We both feel that in a few months our paths will come together in a complimentary form, and this will ultimately shape the new Conscious Club.
For the months of May & June we have made a special 8-ride pass available for €100,- to enjoy your last journeys in our sacred space. All other member cards will be extended for 6 months and are available for use at our upcoming pop-up locations. Our doors will close at the end of June.
Untamed, wild and free, we hope you will embrace this new fluid form with us. We can’t wait to flow into new adventures and discoveries with all of you!
Much love!
Elizabeth & Charon
Listen to the full story in our Podcast Trilogy; The Conscious Club Past, Present & Future - on Spotify @ The Conscious Club / Conscious Talks or via our website https://www.theconsciousclub.com/podcast