The 'I want to ..' posts are a series of processing's of particular wants in my life. The intention is to create something out of what I want for you and for myself. The process of creating our dream lives full of healthy habits is a difficult one; and this is just one way I'm trying to make something out of my journey.
Currently, I'm a mess of different things I want to learn, do and create - although this is something we all learn to balance at some point, I'm looking to create something out of my process and I hope you'll get something out of this yourself.
I want to feel flow.
That state where one movement flows to the next. Where decision-making is easy and stressless. Where you're in the moment and there's nothing pulling you away from it.
A few days ago, I listened to a Collective Insights podcast, "Extinguishing Fear When it Really Matters Through Breath and Vision." A lot pf this post stems from what I understood from this podcast episode - if you're looking for some really good brain juice through your ears, I highly recommend this and other episodes of the podcast.
We've all at least somewhat heard how meditation can help us right? And we've probably all tried it at least once.
For me, if done correctly, meditation does work and more recently, I'm mixing it with yoga. I find it easier to be mindful when I'm stretching, it's easier than sitting still.
But, I want to feel flow. Meditation and yoga do bring me back to a calm and balanced state and this can make it easier to access flow but our environments don't always permit 20 minutes of meditation or stretching, so what can alter our state faster?
What is flow?
Flow is a state of consciousness first coined by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975. He discovered it when he would play chess during the second-world war. His worries and stresses would leave him as he was absorbed in the game.
I read about flow and Csíkszentmihályi in the book The Rise of Superman, I've now handed it onto a Couchsurfer so I can't show you any photos but the book goes into the flow's appearance in near death experiences, in extreme sports and other scenarios.
Flow is a state experienced anywhere by anyone. Jazz musicians can enter 'the pocket', basketball players enter 'the zone'; there's a number of names for it. The book explores how we can get more flow in our normal day to day lives, and understandably can't give much of a definitive answer - considering we all have different lives, environments and triggers; the same technique could affect us all differently. The author, Steven Kotler, along with some buddies created a paid service where you can get a 'flow-profile', though I haven't paid for this.
Accessing flow
The Collective Insights podcast though, re-equipped me with two incredible tools to help me access flow, breath and vision.
Arguably at any moment, we can decide to breathe in however we please. You can huff and puff to lift or drop your energy, maybe expelling thoughts you're holding on to. You can try at 4-7-8 technique to help you fall asleep (breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7, release for 8). The fact is, there are multiple factors about our breath which we can use to influence our state, and we can all be influenced differently by the same or different patterns.
'Triggers' are any kind of physical, mental or emotional thing that bring on a physical, mental or emotional thing. 'Flow triggers' are anything that bring you into a state of flow, from memories, movements to mantras and so on.
Using Vision
Another tool we have is our vision, where and how our eyes go - this is a little harder to explain by text. An example is panoramic vision, where you focus on no particular point, which widens the attention of your vision - panoramic vision is used in several martial arts due to it increasing reflexes. Alternatively, you can stare directly, and dart your eyes with specific focus, which narrows your vision.
The combination of these two, breath and vision, is talked about in relation to taking control of our state. It's a new thing for a lot of us to even consider 'state', let alone use these tools to control it. Honestly though, I believe we understood this intuitively better than we thought, but are trained out of it by conforming to societies movements - we find self expression through movement 'weird', which is unfortunate since controlling our states is arguably the most important skill we can have, don't you think?
An example: let's try panoramic vision, if you try it yourself, let me know what affect it has on you - remembering that each of us is different, so although we can do the same things with our breath and our bodies, the same technique can affect each of us differently.
To enter panoramic vision, intentionally 'thin' your gaze by dropping your eyelids and focus on no particular point, don't squint, just let your eyelids relax. You might be looking pretty spacey or flat, but you should be able to see more things around you, and how's your breath? When you breathe in and out, are you less stiff? Can you feel it go through your body more?
In this state, I at least feel flow in how my breath goes throughout my body, I feel less stiff; and if I continue like this for a little while, my state does start to shift to one that's a bit more calm and focused. I've been using this a little to let go of things and come back to what I need to do.
How else to attract flow?
Although breath and vision are tools which are always available to us, there is more we can do to attract flow or any state of consciousness into our lives. I've still got a lot to discover, learn and practice around this but for now, I'd like to shout out and welcome @wrychime to the Steem Blockchain.
I'm a bit late now, but in his introduction post, @wrychime mentioned "Lifestyle design", meaning the design of your life. It's a broad topic and can mean things like your morning routine, the layout of your environment, your night routine, working environments and a lot more - I'm only just starting to pay attention to it.
Designing your life, your environments and spaces, so that you can do more of what you really want to do, could be incredibly useful. Personally, I've been processing this for a little while, but just haven't executed on it. I've lived on my own now for 7 months, but haven't redesigned my space to how I would really like it, like I'm not worth treating myself to the redesign of my environments - self-love, self-love, self-love.
The point is, I was inspired by @wrychime's post for several reasons and I really appreciate it, welcome to Steem mate!
I want to feel flow;
I can do this by playing around with different kinds of breathing, prompting thoughts, connecting with people, moving in different ways and apparently, vision - there's a bunch we can do. I didn't mention this earlier in the post, but Brian and Adam, the podcast guests, are developing an application called state, which intends to give you immediate feedback on different things you can do to feel the way you want to feel - a tech tool to manage your state.
How do you feel about managing your state? Is it something you've considered before?
Thank you for reading! What I write and how I write is still coming together, so I appreciate your attention despite my inconsistency, and I really look forward to seeing you around.