Flow

Jun 05, 2023

Written by Michelle Roques-O'Neil

Have you ever felt so deeply immersed in something that you've lost track of time? That surprise when you look up at the clock only to find you've lost hours, it's late into the evening, or you've missed dinner? Time becomes fluid.

Flow is the fourth pillar of happiness and is sometimes described as being in the zone. This is similar to a peak or bliss state, a sense of self-actualisation, of being truly content and happy beyond the neutral of daily life. By neutral, I mean those moments spent passively staring at a screen or endlessly scrolling.

The key to Flow is to find something you love and want to do (set your goal). That requires creativity, rules and objectives; the challenge matches your skills and doesn't create anxiety.

Flow happens... especially when you're absorbed in a pursuit you genuinely love, such as playing music, painting, sculpture or pottery, a sport like archery, running or rowing or meditative movements like yoga or qigong; you lose yourself and become one with the moment.

I've experienced this flow state when practising qigong, where the boundaries between the material and energetic worlds merge into a subtle slipstream. Fully absorbed, I lose my sense of self and any self-consciousness. I also experienced this when I used to paint, and once, whilst learning white water rafting, immersed in the awe of nature, the water's power and being totally in the moment.

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Deepak Chopra describes this state as "Lightness of being, no anticipation, no regrets, no resistance, performing the right spontaneous choice in each moment”. It demonstrates the power of subtle intention or thought that informs the physical sense before it is performed.

You too, can learn to use this subtle sense to tune your body-mind receptors and get you in the zone. Find a goal, such as an exercise or craft and do it while listening to music to put you into the zone.

This simple, exercise used by The Chopra Centre is an easy way to calibrate your body.

Focus on your body, breathing slowly and deeply.

Now repeat inwardly 3-5 times this phrase: Happy Vital Body, absorb the words into your body; with an inward smile, radiate this state through your body for 60 seconds.

Move to your Heart centre, placing both hands over the Heart, this time saying the words 3-5 times: Joyful Compassionate Heart; absorb the words into your Heart; then, with an inward smile and soft eyes, embody the feeling of the words within your Heart for 60 seconds.

Now move to your Third Eye (the point found in the eyebrows at the bridge of your nose). Breathe deeply and say these words 3-5 times: Creative Focused Mind, then silently embody these words energetically with an inward smile throughout your whole body.

Now bring your focus to the whole body extending beyond the boundaries of your physical being; breathe deeply and say these words 3-5 times: Untethered Enlightened Spirit, as before, radiate these subtle words throughout the body and beyond into the space around you.

Sit still and enjoy the moment.💛

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Flow

Focus on your body, breathing slowly and deeply.