Finding Your River: Wisdom from Water in Times of Change

Ever watched water flow around obstacles instead of trying to push through them? There's profound wisdom in water's adaptability that we can apply to our own lives. 

Water doesn't force its way through life; it adapts, shapes itself to circumstances, and finds the path of least resistance. The river doesn't relocate when facing challenges – it simply continues flowing, adjusting its course as needed. By observing how water flows around obstacles rather than forcing its way through, we can learn to move through our lives with less attachment and greater adaptability.

Key talking points in this episode include: 

• Water teaches us to be less attached and move with more ease through life
• Sometimes we need to swim upstream, but often we benefit from flowing with the current
• "The river doesn't move, it just flows" – a reminder to adapt rather than resist
• Taking a pause when needed is part of respecting our natural rhythms and energy
• Cancer season (a water sign) encourages working with emotional and intuitive flows

Journaling prompts for the week: Ask yourself what water body you would be right now – a gentle stream, crashing ocean, rushing river, or still lake? What wisdom might that particular water form have to teach you? Where in your life could you release stickiness and find more flow?

Join me on this exploration of fluidity, adaptability, and the gentle power of surrender. Subscribe to Your Heart Magic for weekly inspiration at the intersection of psychology, spirituality, and heart wisdom.

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Your Heart Magic is a space where heart wisdom, spirituality, and psychology meet. Enjoy episodes centered on mental health, spirituality, personal growth, healing, and well-being. Featured as one of the best Heart Energy and Akashic Records Podcasts in 2024 by PlayerFM and Globally Ranked in the top 5% in Listen Notes.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright is a Licensed Psychologist, Spiritual Educator, and Akashic Records Reader. She is the author of Small Pearls Big Wisdom, the Award-Winning Lamentations of the Sea, its sequels, and several books of poetry. A psychologist with a mystic mind, she weaves perspectives from both worlds to offer holistic wisdom.

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Episode Transcript

Intro/Outro Music (00:13):
Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an
illuminating space wherepsychology, spirituality and
heart wisdom meet.
Here's your host, dr Beth AnnKapansky-Wright.
Author, psychologist andspiritual educator.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wri (00:34):
Aloha everybody.
Welcome to your Heart Magic.
This is Dr Beth AnnKapansky-Wright, and today we
are going to be talking aboutthe wisdom of water and looking
at some ideas of how can we beinspired to tap into the essence
of water and learn to flow inour lives and learn to just

(00:56):
allow ourselves to move throughthings easily and peacefully.
And if you listen to your heartmagic on a weekly basis, you
might have noticed that for thefirst time ever, I did not
release a new episode this lastweek.
I started this podcast inJanuary of 2023.
And I have never missed a weekof posting a new episode.

(01:20):
I've always been consistent andthis past week I just ran into a
wall and it came from thiscombination of things of being
really busy with work.
Right now, I'm doing thechoreography for a community
theater production this summerand it's been a lot of dance all
at once.
I've turned out so many dancesand taught them in the last two

(01:42):
and a half weeks and I'mmarathon training and I'm lifing
.
I have my own things going onand I just ran into something
where I really ran out of timeand didn't want to put anything
up that didn't feel from theheart and quality.
So I thought I'd try somethingnew and I gave myself permission
to take the week off, and,though it's not my intention to

(02:04):
do that on a regular basis, Ifeel like part of my commitment
and just sharing myself withothers and sharing a space of
inspiration and hope and heartwisdom is to show up here and
share something weekly.
It was good to remember thatit's okay to break our mold
sometimes and to give ourselvespermission to take care of

(02:26):
ourselves.
So, in the spirit of that, Iwill be doing slightly shorter
episodes for the remainder ofthe summer until life moves into
a little bit of a calmer season.
And all of that ties in todaywith what we are talking about
on the podcast, and it's theidea of allowing ourselves to
flow in our lives and to change,as the flows in our life might

(02:50):
change, and to learn to leaninto things and follow the
direction that the river istaking us, instead of always
over-efforting or forcingourselves to go against the
current in our lives.
And I think that it's importantto know that there's a time to
effort and to swim upstreamagainst the current, and there's

(03:12):
a time to follow it and to leaninto the flow, and so there's
space for both.
This isn't about doing life inone way, but it is about
learning how to build the partof ourselves that knows how to
be receptive, that learns how towork with the flow state.
So this piece that I want toshare today is called Water

(03:32):
Wisdom, and it's from SmallPearls Big Wisdom.
It's a pretty short passageWater Wisdom Lighten up, play,
be like water today, for theriver doesn't move, it just
flows.
Water teaches us to be lessattached and move through our
lives with less stickiness andmore ease, clear and pure.

(03:56):
Not allowing ourselves to getsucked in and stuck on things
that aren't worth our life force, but instead finding ways to
meander along using the leastamount of effort, so we don't
waste our energy.
Carving out our path with ourlife force instead of forcing
our life force to fit a presetpath.

(04:16):
Allowing life to move with andthrough us as we learn to put in
less effort, allow more andbecome increasingly adaptive.
Knowing there are seasons forrushing tides and rapid streams
and seasons for gentle pools andsofter laps and easy ebbs.
Knowing these seasons canhappen multiple times within the

(04:40):
same month, the same week, thesame day and the same breath.
Trusting the ones who are meantto share in our streams will
draw near, see the beauty ourwaters offer and release all
others to seek water elsewhere,remembering the vital importance
of tending to our ownwellsprings and keeping them

(05:01):
clean and clear.
Water offers endless wisdomwhen we realize it is a living,
breathing life force on ourplanet that is constantly
modeling, guiding, cleansing,purifying and supporting us,
teaching us how to be moremalleable, liquid and fluid and

(05:22):
find greater peace and surrenderin our flows.
I feel very fortunate to live soclose to the water, being on
the island of Kauai and in thelocation that I live in now.
The ocean's not that far away.
I can't hear it on a regularbasis from my home, but in the

(05:43):
wintertime, when the swells arereally big, you can hear the
ocean crashing.
At night, when everything'sreally quiet, and that is really
magical.
And being able to access thatand to just go stand by it or go
be by the sea feels like such agift.
It wasn't always so.
I'm originally from Alaska, so Iwouldn't exactly call snow

(06:06):
water.
We have a lot of rain there, alot of lakes, but I think there
is an ease here of being by thesea and watching the tide go in
and out that supports thementality of learning to let go
and learning to visualize beinglike the water, and that's
something that I will sometimesthink of if I'm feeling stressed

(06:27):
or I feel like there's too muchgoing on or I feel like I am
over efforting or just havingone of those feeling states that
I'm having a lot of resistanceand I know I need to just move
through whatever it is that'spresenting itself in my life.
And so I'll think about thisimagery of how can I be like

(06:48):
water today?
How can I move with more ease?
How can I learn to flow throughmy day?
How can I be like water today?
How can I move with more ease?
How can I learn to flow throughmy day?
How can I breathe more?
How can I not attach so muchand just allow myself to be non
sticky, to let go and have moreof the attitude of all right,
this is happening and now thisis happening.

(07:09):
And if something comes my wayand it's a curveball or a
frustration or something thatfeels like an obstacle in the
path, to be mindful about justmoving with it, moving around it
, flowing over it, figuring outwhat I can do with that and
really scrapping some of thatold self talk that so many of us

(07:31):
have, where we feel like why islife doing this to me?
Or we get really frustratedbecause things aren't going the
way that we wanted to, or thingsdon't look the way that we
wanted them to.
And so I think a lot about theinspiration of water, and when I
wrote this piece, which madeits way into Small Pearls, big
Wisdom, which for me reallyreads like an anthology of years

(07:53):
worth of different works, andso it's more of a synthesis of
multiple pieces that I'd writtenon water, and like water
weaving those flows, weavingthat wisdom together, and that
line about the river not moving,it just flows, really made me
think about how rivers don'tjust like pack up and go move

(08:15):
somewhere.
They can't, they just flow.
They just make their way in theworld and they learn to flow
wherever they're at.
And so I think that that's sucha graceful way to remind
ourselves to work with theenergies of surrender, of
letting go.
The Akashic Records for thethird quarter of this year

(08:36):
talked a lot about how it islike this map ever unfolding,
and that we are moving into thisperiod right now where we don't
necessarily know what's comingaround the next river bend, and
so the encouragement is to beexploratory, to allow ourselves
to unfold as we take in thesights and we ride this river

(08:57):
and we don't see what's comingaround the bend until we're in
the moment, and so we learn torespond to it in the moment.
We learn to adapt to it in themoment.
We learn to increasingly keepletting go of expectations Even
in the moment.
We learn to increasingly keepletting go of expectations Even
in the moment.
If we realize we're attachingto an expectation, we learn more
and more how to take a breathand say right, I thought that

(09:19):
was going to happen and now thisis happening, so we're moving
in this direction instead.
And when we're being like water, it doesn't mean we don't have
a process or feelings around ourexperience.
Sometimes being adaptive andresponsive is hard.
Sometimes there might be a partof ourselves that kind of digs
their heels in and thinks but Iwanted it to look this way, this

(09:41):
is not how it's supposed to be.
We can learn to hold space forthat inside of ourselves and
also try and still take the pathof being that gentle,
meandering river and just keepmoving with the flows in our
life.
So I feel like that's reallybeautiful wisdom for any time in
life, but it is cancer seasonright now.

(10:02):
Cancer is a water sign.
On the last podcast we talkedabout the archetype of cancer
and the wonderful energy from itthat encourages us to be
creative, to self-nourish, tothink about what represents
heart and home to us and tolearn to work with our emotional
flows and our intuitive flows.

(10:23):
And so this imagery of how canyou be like water this week, how
can you move through the thingsin your life with less
attachment, a little bit moreease.
Is there anything in your lifethat you are feeling really
sticky around right now, thatyou have a very stuck mindset
around, that you could let go ofa little bit more?
These are all beautifuljournaling prompts for the week

(10:46):
ahead, and maybe also imaginingjust for fun if you were a body
of water right now, what wouldit be?
Would you be a gentle stream?
Would you feel like a crashingocean?
Would you be a rushing river?
Would you feel like a puddle?
Maybe you feel stuck and so youjust feel a little bit like
this stuck puddle or a verystill lake on a day without a

(11:08):
breeze.
What water would you be andwhat wisdom might you learn from
that particular tributary ofwater and what it might have to
teach you.
So just some fun intuitivewriting prompts if you want to
take this idea a little bitfurther and do some creative

(11:29):
journaling around it.
And with that I wish you abeautiful week.
I hope it is one that you canfind a little bit more peace,
ease and grace for your process.
I will be back next week withanother episode of your Heart
Magic.
And, as always, be well, belove, be you and be magic.

Intro/Outro Music (11:59):
You've been listening to your Heart Magic
with Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright.
Tune in next week for a newepisode to support and empower
your light.