- Paramananda

- Achaan Chah

- Achaan Chah

“Non-grasping to the end product allows flow to happen because you are living in the process, step by step and logical steps take over.”

But there is more to it than just focusing on the process, and so came the experiment in flow. This involved writing a book, and while this continues I can definitely see how beneficial flow is so wanted to share it. Flow has allowed me to write over 1200 words an hour and so far plough through six chapters of a book in a matter of weeks. What is most surprising is that is just comes out (the words), almost fully formed, with little editing, and not much thought either. No writers block, no nothing that is resistant. Aside from non-grasping to the outcome and focusing on the process I tested out a few other ideas to see their effect, and they have helped to allow flow to coarse through. Key word: allow.

Letting go of judgments
Before we do anything we filter it through our emotional brains, and judge our ability to do that thing we are about to do. If you have created conditions where you don’t do this, you can just do, instead of constantly, judge, do, judge, do. Matthieu Ricard refers to a state of flow as being “a loss of reflective self-consciousness,” so you are doing and not self-criticising. How do you let go of this? Remind yourself that having an opinion about what you are doing serves absolutely no purpose, especially when you go over it ten times in your head – in one minute. It is a waste of thinking time. A typical one for me is ”what will people think of that sentence?” Another condition I have found is to write when I am not fully engaged with the world yet. This means writing away from others, work places etc that all influence us, which for me means writing in the morning, before I have engaged with the outside world.

Routine
Our bodies love routine as this is rooted in our hormones that have routine injecting and regulating our bodies rhythm. When we create routines, positive or negative we are in harmony with our natural rhythms. A negative habit such as a routine of watching 3-hours of television a day; depending on your intention on spending your time (this might be bliss for some people). Positive routines are those that move you closer to what you want. I created a routine by writing before work. I know I can’t write after work as I am too tired and my head is full of my day. First thing in the morning I get up, make coffee and then write for 30-minutes. No more, no less. I have to get up at 6am to fit this, and mediation in, before leaving for work and I am not a morning person, which brings me to my next point.

Prioritising: sleep or write?
When you want to achieve flow you need to set up the conditions to help you achieve it. Prioritising has helped me in that if I am going to go against my natural inclination to sleep in, and get up early (because I truly hate it!), then I am going to make the most of it. I am not going to let my mind wander, or allow myself to be a plaything of my judgements or thoughts. It is only a short period of time, I cannot waste it which leads onto the next point.

Stop before you need to
By setting a small amount of time to do that thing you want to create flow in, you don’t waste time. You want to have golden minutes and always creating conditions whereby you stop before you need to, keeps enthusiasm and thirst there for more.

Remove distractions
No internet, no mobile, no anything. It’s as simple or as hard as that. This is why I find it impossible to write at night as there are too many things to do, or when I had a flat mate, a noisy one, making it impossible to channel anything into a sentence. Ensuring I don’t log onto the internet and don’t check my emails ensures no engagement with the outside world which draws you into thinking, not flowing.

Intention
If you give yourself fully to an activity it is easier to initiate flow. For me, this is setting an intention. If I am to only have 30-minutes to write my intention is quality, not distracting myself with the internet or planning my day. Having an intention of quality, and of flow switches your mind and body on to create that ideal state.

Flags
Full concentration or focus is impossible – it is more about coming back from deviations in concentration and that is where I have found flags useful. Flags are mental thoughts that if a judgement comes up, or anything countering the creation of flow, then mentally a flag pops up and I remind myself to get back on task. I have noticed that as I continue to write I am getting faster and faster and the time between being distracted and noticing the flag is getting smaller telling me I am making flow a habit.

Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard says “to be free is to master oneself.” I would add to that: freedom allows flow, to create and be creative. I challenged myself to be able to write a book in a 40-hr week in 30-minute chunks. So far I’m a third of the way through in 27-hrs so it may not be the 40-hrs I had hoped for, but hey a lot of people work more than 40-hrs a week right? Either way, I hope you can apply some of the aspects outlined above to create flow and more enjoyment, in that thing you do.

-
If you liked this, please share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends

- Tara Bennett-Goleman

I moved to the UK 6-months ago with an intention to travel, and experience more opportunities in the land of 60-million people.  One of my goals was to travel to one place per month, and so far that has been achieved, even if it is somewhere in the UK.  I’m conscious that a lot of people do “OE’s” and spend a lot of time in Europe, while living in the UK, and see very little of the UK.  The accessibility to Europe is definitely one of the draw cards to living here.

I had 10-days off over Christmas but didn’t go anywhere.  It was maintenance time.  Time to reflect, look back on the last year, and plan forward.  Each day was a nice balance of this, yoga, meditation, and plenty of sleep.  It was ideal hibernation weather with the snow falling outside.  Being a goal driven person I can get caught up in my things to do list and forget that it is only when you have reflection time, that you really look at these things to do with mindfulness, and perspective.  It’s easy to do, and not really think, why am I doing this?

Johnathan Mead had an interesting set of questions on his website for reflection and goal setting so I sat down and did these before a unique New Year at the Manchester Buddhist Centre.  We burnt things we wanted to let go off in 2010, which was very cleansing.  This also helped put things in perspective for a year of. This year has been a massive year of change, and growth.

Some of my intentions for this year:

Health and fitness

• Be able to run 240-minutes a week, and run a half marathon (left over from last year)
• Do the Level 2 Yoga course at Bodywise
• Feel fit, healthy, and continue to focus on organic, healthy meat-free eating (I’ve finally let go of bacon, and butter chicken)
• Continue with a minimum of one yoga class per week, and 2-3 days of home practice
• Take dance lessons

Community, spiritual and friendships

• Work on friendships.  It is easy to take these for granted, and then 2-3 years later realize you don’t have any!  And be open, and put myself out there for more
• Get more involved with the Sangha at the Buddhist centre
• Level 2 Buddhism and meditation course
• Continue to meditate everyday
• Go on 2-3 Buddhist retreats
• Continue to read, and listen to Dharma podcasts

Gadgets

• Macbook Pro
• Photo scanner (for film)

Financial

• Debt free and continue to live within my means
• Increase my income

Creative

• Writing course
• Use my beautiful classic film cameras more, and learn how to use them properly by doing a photography course
• Finish 2 of the 3 books I have quarter/half done, and find a publisher for them

Travel

• Every month somewhere I have not been before

Other

• Continue catching my unskillful habits, and do things abnormally
• See things as they really are
• Be generous
• Be open to receiving
• Start another degree be it in business (MBA), or a Masters in mindfulness/CBT
• Continue to live authentically being true to who I am and what I want out of this life

It’s going to be a busy year.

These feet are made for walking… or standing on a horizontal escalator

Albert dock is a popular tourist destination so given I was a tourist that was one of my destinations.  It has a few museums, including a Tate, a Beatles museum, a slavery museum, and a maritime museum.

Tate Liverpool

I concur

Banky’s book enticed me at a store. It is a collection of well, his collection. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

“The human race is the most stupid and unfair kind of race.  A lot of the runners don’t even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water.  Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side.  It’s not surprising a lot of people have given up competing altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk and shout abuse.  What the human race needs is a lot more streakers.” – Banksy

Having arrived safe and sound it’s settle in time.  I think my grey hairs are having an effect on my tolerance for things like 6-bed dorms and rabbit warren hostels.  Anyway, that’s another story. 

It’s really odd going from so much to do, to nothing, or anything and everything to do.  When contemplating this I realised the reason is likely to be that I have not had a decent holiday since 2005 (5-months of traveling).   In 2006 I had 2-wks, 07, nothing, and 08, the big 5-days.  It’ so strange.  All this time, which is something that is not second nature to me as I usually have a list of a million and one things to do everyday.  With that in mind, I wrote my list yesterday which of course primarily consists of items to shop for.  Must take advantage of the London sales after all.  I didn’t quite find anything yesterday but enjoyed the Tate Museum, and with finding work on my agenda (ok, another list for next week), Alain de Botton’s “The pleasures and sorrows of work” was purchased.  Very apt given my current predicament, and heavy in subject as well as physical presence – not so good for the backpack that is creating extra muscles I did not think possible on my back.

It’s raining here today so it’s a museum day.  First on my list (oh there we go again!), is the Photography Museum, and then the British Museum.

…is coffee goodness! I love finding new cafes. Cafe Supreme roast there beans in Douglas street, Ponsonby and started a very kitch kiwiana cafe backing onto the roasting warehouse. It is very cute, and definitely worth a visit.

I can’t wait to explore cafes in London. Or perhaps it will be pubs instead?

-Martin Seligmen, Learned Optimism