The Art of Turning "FLOW" On & Off At Will
Author
Damon Cart
Date
Feb 24, 2016
Tags
General tips
Content
Author
In Neuro-Semantics we have discovered how to turn the flow state on and off at will. That's what the APG training is about. Turning flow on and off at will refers to the requisite ability to step in and to step out of an optimum state so that you can be absolutely at your best when you need to be at your best with all of your resources available, and to step out when that's appropriate. Interested?
The Flow State. Csikszentmihalyi is the cognitive psychologist who explored and made "the flow state" explicit in his doctorate dissertation on happiness. Originally, he was searching for the structure of happiness. Then, in the process, he stumbled onto the fact that has been known for centuries. Namely, the best way to not be happy is to pursue happiness! Philosophers have long known that the direct pursuit of happiness is the best way to not experience it. The best way to achieve happiness is to pursue something that's important to you, something that makes a difference, and something requiring knowledge and skill which you develop along the way. That's what Csikszentmihalyi discovered—to be happy you need to be doing something that's meaningful and challenging and something which is based on a skill—a competence.
Yet being happy is not something that will happen immediately or automatically. In fact, the opposite may occur. In the immediate moment when you have a meaningful challenge which may be at the edge of your competence, when you step up to it, it will not be "easy." Usually it is hard. Usually you have to begin using all of your energy, effort, knowledge, and intelligence to be able to do it. This is true of running a race, playing chess, rock climbing, taking on a challenging project, writing a book, etc. So where's the happiness? Ah, that's the secret. The state of "happiness"(joy, delight, even ecstasy) comes later. It comes when you look back on the experience. That's when you say, "What great days those were!" "I was the happiest when I was doing X!" The joy of the experience typically occurs afterwards. Happiness is the afterglow of a worthwhile attempt at something important.
In mapping this out Csikszentmihalyi used two axes—challenge and competence. That generated four quadrants and the "flow zone"—the pathway to flow which involved integrating a challenge with the appropriate skills. In Neuro-Semantics our Self-Actualization Quadrants integrates this and extends it as we use the axes—Meaning and Performance.
Stepping in and out. What NLP brings to the flow experience is the phenomenon of a mind-body state—a state that you can access, step into, and step out of. States are like that. Comprised of a dynamic combination of what's on your mind, the condition of your body, and the emotions that you generate from your meanings—a mind-body-emotion state is simultaneously a state of mind, a state of body, and a state of emotion. This gives us three ways into state.
Further, we can also distinguish states in terms of purity. The great majority of our everyday states are mixed states: a part of me is in a state of learning, a part is preoccupied with work, another part is fearful of rejection, etc. Very, very seldom do we access a pure state wherein we are of one mind about something. A pure state refers to being fully engaged with one referent. Then we are "all there"—fully present. In that situation, we have a laser-beam focus or concentration and that also describes the flow state.
In early NLP literature, this was called a "genius" state, not because it raises IQ, but because it describes the power of the focused, engagement state—the power of being of one mind about something. That same literature identified many of "the prerequisites of genius." And that's what we took in Neuro-Semantics to create the Accessing Personal Genius (APG) training. Taking the prerequisites of personal power, self-valuing, self-acceptance, self-appreciation, ability to choose one's beliefs and suspend limiting beliefs, pleasuring oneself in higher values, making peace with troubling emotions, closing the knowing-doing gap, using the as-if frame for generating new possibilities, setting high intentions and aligning attention to one's highest intention —we have meta-stated these genius requirements into a single pattern.
The result? By custom-designing your own "genius," or flow state, for a particular engagement, you can step in and out of that state at will. Pretty amazing wouldn't you say? "Yes, but does it really work?"
I will tell you about my experience with it. Upon learning and designing the pattern in 1994, I ran the pattern on myself to create two genius or flow states. One was the genius reading state, the other was the flow writing state. That was 1995. Prior to that date, I had written a book, Emotions: Sometimes I have them/ Sometimes they have me (1985). That took me eight years. By 1995 I was still working on the book that eventually became The Spirit of NLP (1997). That only took five years to put together.
Then came the ability to step in and out of the flow state. The first result: no more "writer's block." None! I wrote two books in 1995. And since that time have averaged 2 to 3 books a year, three to five articles a week, two to three training manuals a year, and numerous Prefaces, Introductions, and Chapters in other books. How do I explain this sudden productivity and ease of writing? I can step into the writing state, write for one minute or five or for two hours, and then cleanly step out. Then, when I want to step back in, I do precisely that and start again wherever I was, even in mid-sentence, without any loss of focus, attention, energy, vitality, etc. Now how cool is that? Today (2015) I have written 54 books and counting the serial books, 68.
The same can be said for other flow states: the coaching state, the training state, the exercise state, etc. The great thing is that when you can turn the flow state on and off at will— it is there to serve you and your engagements. You don't have to wait around to "get in the mood." You don't have to do superstitious activities like wearing your favorite yellow shirt or making the victory sign seven times to get into state. You have it well anchored in the physiologies of the state and so you just step in.
Credits : Dr. L. Michael Hall Ph.D.
Damon Cart
Author
Damon Cart is considered to be a natural talent by some of the best NLP trainers in the world. His approach to guiding and teaching students brings to their awareness that they've been doing NLP all of their lives without realizing it and he empowers them with skills and resources to thrive and reach their full potential. With the understanding of how Neuro Linguistic Programs create oneβs experience a person can then take charge of those programs and create the experience and the life they want. By taking this approach into his own rigorous, daily NLP practice Damon has been able to rapidly accelerate his progress in learning, coaching clients and teaching workshops.
