I wanted to do a follow on from last week’s blog about Creativity.
I talked about Flow and how being in the Flow allows you to create with ease and efficiency, so this week I want to elaborate a little more on getting into your Flow.
Being in the flow is really all down to being in a relaxed, calm and balanced state of being……..no matter what is happening all around you. This, of course, is the hard part, as we live such hectic lives, we are all so used to multi-tasking (even though that is almost impossible for us to do!), we get continual input from our numerous devices and our brains are also toxic from our food and environment – that is another blog!
So quieting our minds, which allows us to get in our Flow can be quite challenging for us.
We are so used to the constant stimulus, the drama and challenges of our lives, that we get swept along with it and we end up with minds that are obsessed with grasping, worrying, fighting, longing, avoiding, fearing, judging and so on – we know this doesn’t lead to a relaxed, calm, balanced state of being, so we need to make a conscious choice to quieten our minds and our thoughts otherwise they can and do run wild and have a field day with our emotions and well being.
We seem to find it harder and harder to slow down and to release stress and so many of us live on constant high alert, even paralysed by worry and anxiety and flooding our bodies with toxic levels of stress hormones, and we all know how bad that is for us!
So, how do we get to this magical state of Flow? I gave you a few tips last week, but this week, I want to add the real biggy – Stillness.
Stillness is how we access Flow.
Yes, I am going to say meditate…. but I know from my own personal experience and talking to many of you, sometimes when we ‘force’ ourselves to meditate, we are just going through the motions and our thoughts are telling us that we need to move, adjust our sitting position as we are uncomfortable, we are cold, we need to scratch that itch, we worry we haven’t turned our phone onto silent; and now we are worrying we haven’t got enough time and there is so much to do and we end up in our minds and NOT in stillness.
Firstly, let me say – that is OK, it happens to us all from time to time and meditation, like everything, takes practice – so please don’t give up.
Secondly, let me share with you a simple technique (I’m not sure where I first came across it) that gets you to Stillness very quickly:
Breathe in drawing the breath into your belly, breathe out every last bit of your breath.
Now, again breathe in to where your lungs are comfortably full and notice the pause. In this pause say silently “I AM”. As you breathe out, release all the air from your lungs, notice that pause and in that pause silently say “MY BREATH”. In “I AM”, out “MY BREATH”.
Repeat this for one minute. You may naturally increase your inhalation and exhalation and of course you can do it for as long as you want, or if you can’t manage a minute then start with 30 seconds or even 15 seconds, but do just start.
You can do this whenever you need to bring stillness into your life, to calm your mind and body and take you out of your stress response and back into your relaxation response.
Stillness allows us to get into our Flow and it is available to us when we stop and notice that we’ve been going at 100 miles per hour and yet are achieving very little. When we recognise this and are ready to change, then stillness is available to you.
When we are in Flow, we can and do experience creativity, balance and wellness.