I heard an NPR piece the other day about how mosquitoes are able to survive a rainstorm despite the raindrops hitting them weighing 50 times their weight. Logic would presume the insects would be crushed like bugs on a windshield in a storm, but they’re not.

Part of the reason they survive is they essentially catch a ride on raindrops. “As the raindrop falls, rather than resisting the raindrop, they basically join together kind of like a stowaway on this comet,” the engineering professor involved with the study says.

And there’s that universal truth again, for mosquitoes and humans alike. When we resist what life throws at us, we get pummeled. When we let go of resistance and go with the flow, we tend to come out ok.

Mosquitoes know how to stay safe in a rainstorm despite having only the tiniest of brains. They intuitively understand that resistance isn’t the way. We have this innate wisdom within us too, its voice just often gets lost in all that our huge brains are trying to tell us…this isn’t enough, I need something more, if things could only be a little different, if I could just x,y,z…

But when we quiet our own “buzzing” down enough in a given situation, in a given moment, we can usually sense that sinking into our circumstances is much more pleasant, and paradoxically usually much more effective, than fighting the raindrops coming at us. That when we join forces with the energy around us rather than trying to manipulate it into some more desirable form, we can stay afloat in even the most torrential downpours.

So how would your days be different if you hitched a ride on the circumstances of your life rather than trying to dodge or resist them? And how would your life be different if you embraced and capitalized on your circumstances every day, rather than wishing they were different or trying constantly to change them?

Whatever the raindrops coming your way in life are right now, how about giving yourself a break and riding as a “stowaway” on them for awhile? I’d love to hear how the ride is.

In Love and Support,

Melissa