Find your flow and stop avoiding the things which make you feel good
“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz."
There are three things which inspire and excite me - three topics which light me up and make me feel good when I’m doing them or engaging in activities related to them.
✏️ Writing
📚 Learning
🦋 Spirituality
And yet I’m no different to anyone else. There are so many of us who are not doing enough of the things which light us up and excite us, and some of us aren’t doing any of the things which make us smile and feel good about life.
Why? Why are we not doing the things which feel good and right?
Is it because the feel good stuff doesn’t seem as important as all the other things we have to do - working and earning money for survival, cooking and eating to keep our bodies alive, caring for our families and our loved ones in multiple ways. I’m sure you can keep adding to the list based on your own responsibilities.
Most of us are simply finding ways to get through our days when life seems overwhelming and hard.
We’re saving the stuff which lights us up for when we can truly enjoy them and give them our full attention. So instead we spend our time doing mindless activities in the gaps because we feel so stressed and under pressure by life in general.
Think about it…which of these activities do you do on a regular basis
⏰ scrolling social media, joining different online groups, exploring chats
⏰ playing video games
⏰ binge watching television, movies, streaming services, TikTok, YouTube
⏰ enrolling in courses, webinars, workshops, retreats
⏰ reading multiple books, newsletters, posts
⏰ sleeping, laying on the lounge, mooching around the house
⏰ cleaning - not because you love it but because it needs to be done first
⏰ all the addictive activities - smoking, drinking, gambling, drugging etc (no judgement here - just the reality)
None of them are wrong in moderation, so let’s not go down the guilt track and justify all the reasons and excuses why we do them. The only time these activities become a problem is when they’re used to avoid doing the things which light us up and make us feel good, or when we spend way too much time doing them.
= Avoidance 101
I’ll give you one or two examples because I do this as much as the next person, and maybe more.
I’m exhausted from a long day of work, I come home and instead of writing my next book which I dream and aspire to write - I find myself on the lounge watching the latest tv show and mindlessly scrolling my social media feed.
Yes I’ve had a long day and I’m exhausted, yes my brain is at capacity, yes I don’t want to start writing until I can feel fully engaged and inspired. I justify all the reasons why this is okay. Regardless of the excuses, what I want most is not happening…
The irony with the things that light us up - we have to actually do them before they can light us up. The inspiration and flow doesn’t come first, it’s in the doing that we find our flow and feel inspired.
It’s in the doing that we lose ourselves in the action and for a small time we can move past worrying about not being good enough, or thinking about failure, or comparing ourselves with others, or wondering if we’re doing it right.
We’re just doing it because we love doing it and it feels good
Another example
I really want to create a daily meditation practice - I know how important it is for my well being and I think it will support my spiritual growth and help manage my stress levels in more positive ways. But I want to feel calmer and more ready before I start, I want it to be a perfect experience to ensure I get the maximum benefits.
I’m sure there’s some twisted logic there somewhere, yet writing that down makes me realise how lame that sounds. Sigh…
We all need to stop making excuses and avoiding the things which make us feel good.
The power is in the doing…
Flow happens when we do the stuff which lights us up.
Two people inspired me immeasurably this week, partly because they reminded me of what lights me up and they helped me increase my flow.
💎 Tim Denning - his writing on Substack is here
I attended his masterclass “How to Rewire Your Brain and Become an Idea Machine...for Life”
🌟 My key takeaways - I now know what to do with the multitudes of notes and information I capture on a daily basis to support my desire to write and how to continue to build my ideas.
The responsibility you take is relative to the success you achieve - write something online every single day.
What is catching your attention and ‘moving’ you - this is what you should be sharing. Include stories - it helps people relate.
💎 Caitlin Dianna - her YouTube channel is here
I attended her three part masterclass “You can heal yourself” and I wish I could share the replays - OMG
🌟 My key takeaways - Revolutionary and life changing in such a relatable way. Probably the most insightful and enlightening masterclass I’ve ever attended.
Science, physiology and anatomy has to be equally balanced in our body with the energetic and spiritual realm.
Your body can only heal as fast as your anatomy and physiology can handle the downloads and allow it.
So I leave you with this - my favourite quote “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”~ Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
And a reminder - stop avoiding the things which light you up in positive, healthy and sustainable ways. Find your flow.
Keep Smiling, Fi 🌻
Subtitle quote credit: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi