I recently attended the Psychotherapy Networker Conference in Washington, DC – a yearly gathering of psychotherapists that brings together up to 3600 people. The theme of this year’s conference was being in the present moment, and the unfolding of the weekend offered us a number of collective opportunities to practice being with what emerged, as it emerged.

Our first opportunity to go with the flow occurred after a storm on the Friday of the conference. Because of the weather, a number of presenters couldn’t get to Washington, so workshops were either cancelled or taken over by other speakers. One person, in particular, was an inspiration in his capacity to go with the flow. His name is Daniel Siegel, M.D., and he’s a psychiatrist who has spent recent years translating neuropsychiatry and brain research for therapists. He was called on to deliver a keynote address on Saturday morning, and it was quite something to see him give a talk that was coherent, informative, and entertaining – all without any preparation.

The next collective challenge came in the middle of the night on Saturday, when the hotel’s fire alarm went off and we were all awakened from a deep sleep at 3AM. The hotel had to be evacuated, and I was impressed by the good nature most people expressed as we all went down the stairs and out of the hotel. It was cold and we all were tired, but most of us were going with the flow without struggle.

As I thought about this later, I returned to a theme I often ponder – the power of our collective consciousness when something happens. Here we were, several thousand people, and the tone and quality of the whole weekend was one of ease and a deep willingness to move along in spite of difficulties. For the group to have had this quality, a majority of the people involved needed to be willing to go with the flow without struggle. We created the experience together, with each person contributing and then the collective power of our willingness supporting “going with the flow” .

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to notice where you spontaneously go with the flow and where you resist it. Remember, this isn’t an invitation to judge yourself, or to catch yourself doing anything wrong. Rather, it’s an opportunity to notice your general relationship to going with the flow. Not only is doing so more relaxing and brings greater ease in the presence of challenges, going with the flow actually saves energy. We can exhaust ourselves fighting what is – particularly when what is turns out to be something that can’t be changed.

As part of the experiment this week, I encourage you to notice and hang out with the physical sensations in your body when you go with the flow, or imagine going with the flow. Sometimes, it helps to have an image that supports going with the flow. For me, one of these images is of water melting on a snowy mountain and becoming a trickle, then a flow of run-off where the water finds its own meandering way down the mountain to a river. It’s the meandering that helps me, as I experience in my body what it’s like to go where the openings emerge, rather than insisting that I know – ahead of time – how things should be unfolding.

As with all the experiments, please be gentle with yourself and have curiosity as your companion. Learning to allow things to be as they are in the present doesn’t mean we give up the need or capacity to change things we don’t like. It does mean that, when we can’t change what is, we can learn to allow that to be in our experience without struggle.