Keep The Channel Open

The Hotpot | February 2026 | By Lisanne

3.2

We carry inside us something that can’t be measured, labeled, or compared.

American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham called it the life force—the energy that moves through us that’s unique. If it’s blocked, it disappears. There is no one else to channel it as you do.

I’ve seen it show up as a flicker of energy, an impulse, a restlessness that nudges us toward creation.

Some of us waste it worrying whether it’s good enough. But according to Martha—it isn’t our job to decide.

Our job might be to notice it, honor it, and let it move. That’s the only way it survives.
It matters to show up for the urges that pull at us, even when confidence or belief wavers, especially when it trembles in our hands.

If you don’t have the belief, just do it curious.
If you don’t have the confidence, move while scared.
What’s required is the willingness to keep the channel open, to answer the call when it comes, even if it trembles in our hands.

Whether there’s an end-point, a final satisfaction, or there’s not. It’s often that persistent restlessness what makes life so vivid. It pushes us forward, keeps us reaching, searching, and alive in ways we can’t fully predict.

It’d be a mistake if we let self-judgment or comparison silence the unique life force frequencies we were born to play.

So, here’s a question worth sitting with:
what would you begin today if you knew you couldn’t fail? What might happen if you let it speak now?

Let me know in the comments!

Footnote:

• Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham by Agnes De Mille. pg. 264.

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on emotional competence. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.