How to Get Into a State of Flow
To Be the One Who Does …
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
The quote above circulates widely on Facebook and is often attributed to the Ancient Chinese sage Laozi, although this is questionable. The reason for this attribution is probably that the reference to living in the present might be interpreted as the Daoist principle of flow. The implied question in this saying is then, how can we avoid living in the past or future and achieve the flow state of being in the present?
Mindvalley founder Vishen Lakhiani defines the Flow State as “a metal state of mind in which you are pulled forward by big goals, yet happy where you are now. It creates a feeling of growth and a feeling of being lucky.” In other words, if you are happy in the now and have a clear vision for the future, you are in a continuous state of flow. We’ve all experienced this in one way or another. It’s those moments when the right people, the right coincidences and the right opportunities show up seemingly out of nowhere at exactly the right time. The universe has your back!
For most of us these moments of flow are just that though: moments, not a continuous state of mind. There are those of us who actually experience the opposite, a negative state of mind, in which we are unhappy in the present and lack a vision for the future. Then there is the vast majority of us, kind of trapped in current reality, happy in the now, but lacking a vision for the future. Finally there are those who exist in a continuous state of stress and anxiety, having a clear vision for the future but unhappy in the now. The challenge is to overcome these three common states of mind and be happy in the now and set the right goals for the future.
Lakhiani recommends the following morning routine as a path to being happy in the now:
Meditate. It doesn’t matter what kind of meditation or how long. Just the simple act of clearing your mind at the beginning of the day will guarantee a clean start.
Visualize. Take a couple of minutes to run through your mind where you see yourself in the next three to five years.
Intend. Declare mentally to yourself how you’d like to see the day unfold.
Read. Every day read something that inspires you.
Express Gratitude. Run through a list of the things that your are grateful for.
To express this simpler, by focusing on what you’ve already got or achieved, over time you’ll learn to be happy in the now.
For finding our vision for the future, we should work out what it is we really want versus what we think we want. Society has brainwashed us into believing that there is a set of rules we should follow in order to be successful. We should get the ‘right’ education, work hard and set realistic goals. This is not true.
The only right education is life-long learning and sadly enough there’s no guarantee hard work will lead to success. The trick is to think big. Don’t set realistic goals, set unrealistic ones. Realistic goals only lead to frustration if they aren’t achieved. People have a way to figure out the unrealistic ones because there’s no real pressure to really achieve, they’re unrealistic right? So think big, “because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
[T]here you are.