Going With the Flow

Ed Struchar, founder of InGenius Inc., has researched performance enhancement techniques. One of the elements he has studied relates to “flow.” We have all experienced and been in “the flow.” It happens when things seem to naturally come together. When you expend the least effort and get the greatest results. An example would be a sail boat riding with the wind. It moves with minimum effort. By being with the wind, it cruises effortlessly. Yet, when the same boat is against the wind, it has to accomplish a lot more with extreme effort to travel a short distance. Of course, when there is no wind, the sail boat is dead in the water.
The same is true of all of us. When you don’t have flow, things seem to disintegrate. Even if you were to expend tremendous effort, trying to force things together, they still fall apart. And then there are the times when you have felt dead in the water and could accomplish nothing.
Stuchar affirms that there is a way to move back into the flow. He suggests changing course. Try an experiment: hold a soda straw in the wind. There is flow – air flows through the straw. If the straw gets clogged (debris or compression), the flow is halted. We are like the straw. Life and energy are flowing through us, and we can also become clogged.
Yet, if you want to restore the flow there are ways to accomplish this. First examine how you might be damming your flow. You can do this by having too many ideas, projects or pursuits. You can also get clogged with too much clutter– either emotional (unfinished business) or the physical kind – too much stuff. You must clean out the clutter.
What haven’t you used or worn in the last year? With paperwork – file it or toss it. Barring tax or legal records, what paperwork haven’t you needed or used in the last 5 years? (Almost all information is available on the internet should you need it.) About magazines or books – if you haven’t read them in the last five years and don’t need them for research, pitch them. You will feel like a million bucks when you have cleared out all the stuff.
To release unresolved conflict, do what AA suggests. Forgive anyone who has offended you (real or imagined) or make amends if you have offended them. Included in this is paying back debts. Past guilt and grievances clog up your mental-emotional works.
Additionally unexpressed ideas suppress emotional joy. How do you need to express creatively? Don’t worry about publication or selling your stuff -- express for the joy of expressing.
Broken agreements block your flow. Why…because your brain does not believe you when you have not kept agreements. It creates doubt. Conversely, you become powerful when you make and keep commitments. Your will is strengthened and you are inspired.
If there are mental incompletions such as unfinished projects, get busy. Or if you have not held your vision to fruition, you have gotten in your way by not allowed the “how” to come in to you. If you feel stuck, find someone with a similar problem to yours and help them. Your problem will be resolved as well. There are solutions to all problems.
Einstein said, “Never solve a problem at the level of the problem.” You must bring your mind to a higher perspective to solve it. When you help others, you do this.
As you use your talents and gifts to help others, they get stronger. Not allowing others to help you blocks your flow. We are all here as a universal support system. I help you; you help me. We are all agents of One Great Mind working in concert.
Hey this can be fun!