Hello ….how are you today?

This week I’d like to invite you to learn about the “flow state” so that we can feel inspired and fly high. This state was first described by Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.

I’ve been fascinated by the idea for ages. Basically, being in a flow state or in the sweet spot means we feel completely involved in an activity, we feel sharp concentration, joy in the process and the feeling that time’s been suspended.

Would you like to experience the flow state in your life? 🏄🏻‍♀️

You can listen to the podcast with this player, or if you prefer reading you have a written version below. Enjoy it!

Have you ever been so inspired doing something that hours went by and you didn't realize it? Better still, have you felt such great joy in whatever you were doing that ideas came to you one after another and you found yourself at a very high peak of creativity? Have you ever felt how doors opened before you and you started to manifest your dreams? That’s because you were flowing with life or in a state of “flow”. Isn't that state wonderful? Would you like to have more moments like that? I had to learn to be in the sweet spot, I’m not there 100% of the time but a good part of it. The benefits are so many that I try to help my clients to get in the flow because from that state everything’s possible. If you learn to cultivate the state of "flow", you’ll fly high. Mind you, avoid obsessing to achieve that state because that tension is harmful and totally detrimental to being in the zone.

You might have been studying for an exam or preparing for a presentation, and so you spent hours of forced concentration on your task. You had no choice, so you stayed up late, and you went over what you had to know a thousand times. You were involved and you applied hard. That’s fine, you did what you needed to do, but if you didn’t enjoy yourself and time was a constraint, you were not flowing, you were fulfilling your duty. It’s important to clarify this in order to separate wheat from the chaff. If you are an innate perfectionist, you may want to listen to the podcast on "Letting go: new age fashion or reality" on this website. The thing is the perfectionist gives it all in every task without being able to prioritize and enjoy, and they end up feeling burned out.

The 7 maxims

Below is a list of 7 maxims that made it easier for me to be in a state of flow in my life.

1. Practice the sacred pause to live in more harmony. By this, I mean learning to leave a space between the stimuli we receive and our response.

2. Be clear about your goals and try to move in their direction from a visceral and self-fulfilling place but not to feed your ego.

3. Find the moment of the day where you feel the greatest peak of concentration and try to use it to your advantage.

4. Trust yourself and dare to get out of your comfort zone, mind you, just a little, not that much that you end up feeling overwhelmed.

5. Seek enjoyment in your day-to-day life deliberately.

6. Prioritize what is most valuable to you and learn to set healthy boundaries to avoid feeling overloaded

7. Be aware of your relationships and cultivate those that are healthy and loving.

I’ll dive deep in each maxim next week. Today, I’d like to share with you a client’s experience with her permission. I hope this helps you get a glimpse of what being in the zone is and what it isn’t.

Flow: an example

My client changed jobs. The stress in the process scattered her energy. She went jogging to relieve her feelings but the fear of failure and what others might say kept her in an unhealthy loop. She did her best to avoid mistakes, she prepared for her presentations, reports, and team meetings but she couldn’t enjoy anything. She got job recognition but she lacked joy in her personal life. Going out for a jog became a task to cross out from her to do list and had nothing to do with her enjoyment.

She reached out to me and we started working together. Little by little, she woke up from the trance and realized that her head was going forward but her heart was pulling her the other way. We worked with the 7 maxims for flow, and she began to experience a surge of internal strength, relaxation, and very low stress levels, nothing she couldn't bear. She has started to smile and to feel inspired and things on the work and personal front have begun to flow, not as a result of magic, but because she managed to align mind and heart.

An excercise to Start

I hope this first part of the blog / podcast helps you get started on a new way of experiencing life. Take at least one of the 7 maxims and think about it or write down all you can do to practice it. Being able to experience flow provides us with enormous joy, faith, mental and emotional balance and in turn, it facilitates meeting our precious goals.

I’ll elaborate on each of the maxims next week.

I hope you have an inspired week.

A big hug ❤