Using flow for personal gain

This blog and the books focus on ‘self improvement’. However, once you can dip into and out of ‘flow’ at will, you have the option to ‘weaponise’ this ability.

I suggest you practice being in a flow state for days at a time before you choose to ‘weaponise’ this ability.

Weaponisation is simple enough, you merely intentionally disrupt other peoples flow. When calm and relaxed we are all generally in a flow state. Most are in a passive flow state as few people have the necessary personal awareness to be in an active flow state.

Disrupting another persons passive flow state involves creating doubt by asking simple questions. Such as ‘are you sure?’ and ‘what if you are wrong?’. You could increase the disruption by inducing fear. Psychopaths use these techniques quite naturally, so if you know one watch them carefully.

People often have quite intense incidents which cause them emotional turmoil. If you can provide an opening for them to retell the story, they will ‘re-live’ it and the emotions will resurface and will likely sabotage their own flow.

When in a flow state, you act and react as your true self. You are being the best version of you that you could possibly be. When this flow is disrupted you will behave in ways that you will wish you hadn’t. You will be compromising yourself and be disadvantaged. You will have to spend some time undoing the damage you have done to your reputation. Rather than spending time achieving your goals.

With the ability to actively go into a flow state you have many advantages over those who are not even aware of this ability.

1) You are enhanced

2) You can more effectively prevent others disrupting your active and passive flow

3) You can choose to disrupt others flow or reinforce it.

If you are unable to see the value in this then you haven’t grasped the heart of my blog posts or books.

You don’t need to understand what I have written. I humbly ask that you don’t try to understand it. In understanding something you risk fixing it in your mind. This is fine for arithmetic but the real world is not fixed and neither are the people in it. Flow, as the name suggests, is not fixed.

I mentioned psychopaths earlier but narcissists and others with low empathy for others all quite naturally use ‘flow disruption’ techniques. Simply being aware of this offers substantial protection from it. Those with normal or even high levels of empathy won’t be comfortable with the idea of disrupting another persons flow. That is quite natural and nothing to actively attempt to dampen down. ‘Flow disruption’ is simply a weapon you have which you can choose to deploy or not. Know this, those with empathy have the potential to be far more adept at flow disruption than the most ‘effective’ psychopath or narcissist.

As weapons can be used for both defence and attack, it may be worth noting that you can discourage a psychopath from repeatedly attempting to disrupt your flow by actively disrupting theirs.

Flow disruption is probably something to use sparingly, if at all. The opposite of flow disruption, is flow enhancement. You can choose to enhance the flow of your family, friends and colleagues at will. Simply choose to keep them calm and balanced whilst maintaining your own active flow.

I hope that you found this post to be concise and useful. In reading it, you are supposed to keep pausing to critically think about whatever pops into your mind. Understanding the post is of little value. Being able to grasp the concepts and make use of them is down to you.

 

You take care

Flow

The flow I am referring to is the flow as described by Ayrton Senna.

Google / youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeFqsWWG1qE

SENNA - Exclusive Clip ('88 Monte Carlo Grand Prix)

 I have had this for just a few moments in my life. Can we do it for most of the time?

I believe this to be an interesting topic for critical thought, personal critical thought. Your critical thought. This post reflects mine.

Assuming you have a grasp of what 'flow' is, what prevents us being in a flow state almost continuously?

The benefits of being in a flow state are obvious, as are the reasons for this state being difficult to achieve. I entered a flow state in thinking about it and the answers came instantly as I already knew them but wasn't aware of them.

Self awareness, awareness and flow are all linked together. Senna was aware of his own physical sensations in the F1 car. Senna was aware of the car and how it was reacting. He was also aware of the other drivers and to a degree, how their cars were performing. The rest was 'easy' and required no real conscious thought.

Imagine that, being one of the worlds greatest F1 drivers and driving way beyond what you and others thought your ability was. A performance enhancement that I suggest would benefit us all, individually and collectively. Not just driving but in all endevours and industries. Particularly relevent in our collective response to Covid 19.

Flow requires acceptance without judgement. Not something that society trains us to do. We are all trained to judge everyone and especially our selves. I suggest that you only judge your own actions to ensure that they are reasonable. Allow your thoughts the freedom to roam where they please.

So, Covid 19. In the UK we have our cabinet ministers giving a 'presentation' each evening. Attempt to watch it without judgement. The public ask a few questions and then the press. Speculation about what may happen and when, is simple mental masturbation. Do it if you wish but it isn't flow.

With flow it is obvious that there has been a recent change in UK Covid 19 policy. We have gone from getting herd immunity as quickly as possible, without overwhelming the NHS. To suppressing the spread as much as possible, using Apps and tens of thousands of track and trace 'experts'.

That is quite a change. To use flow we must not judge or try to insert our own static beliefs. We can have a few ideas and wait for this thing to unfold. We need to have no emotional* attachment to either the future or which of our ideas may turn out to be correct or reasonably correct. 

*Emotions include fear and anger.

That said, what may have changed? Is the disease far more deadly than we thought? We won't really know how deadly this is until it is over.

It could be that the lung and organ damage is an unexpected difficulty. Those who have Covid 19 are treated to a (possible) lifetime of serious medical problems. Actually not knowing makes setting government Covid 19 policy difficult.

There is no difference between ultra advanced critical thought and flow.

Therefore my thoughts about Covid 19 are not fixed, they flow.

Covid 19 has many effects other than medical. There are psychological effects and economic ones. With flow, all effects can be 'seen' and 'appreciated' without judgment. With flow the major 'personalities' motives become quite clear. The Covid 19 thing goes from being fearful and unknown to being just a thing we need to be aware of and to take reasonable precautions not to get infected or infect others.

That said, I ought not judge the behaviour of our Boris or Dr Fauci. Boris is being Boris. Dr Fauci is being Dr Fauci. Accepting these key players to act according to their own beliefs allows me to be me. This is the environment in which flow can flourish.

I could give you a snap shot of the virus and our response but you would judge it and therefore destroy your own flow.

I could give you a snap shot of the virus and our response and you can practise not having an emotional response to it.

My flow realisation of the Covid 19 situation is that it couldn't be any different. Society is fairly rigid and Covid 19 is a step input to a fixed system. However, I am a systems analyst and design engineer and those terms are just part of who I am. How each society is responding to Covid 19 reveals a great deal about that society. There are plenty of things to critically think about. Or we can just allow flow to reveal reality to us.

I won't give you my analysis of the Covid 19 response. Members of society cannot see the reality of the society they live in or they would not accept it. The Covid 19 response is as authoritarian as it is because society is authoritarian. Flow, ultra advanced critical thought and the obvious are all the same thing.

What I believe to be happening is of no value whatsoever, if everyone else on the planet collectively believes something else. I am curious as to whether, or not, people will start to notice the (corrosive) nature of society. In doing so, will they be far more motivated to get back to 'normal', rather than try something new? The fearful many do not like change and the few are happy to maintain the fear.

I find this to be fascinating.

Using flow, you can listen to anyone talking about anything and readily notice where they have mental blocks and fixed beliefs. Therefore, you know which bits to ignore and which bits not to question. They are revealing to you more than they are aware of. The benefit of this is substantial, not least of which you can extract from them the things they actually know rather than what they themselves think they know.

In my last blog post I suggested a potential way out of lock down based on age and risk. This was a guess and I was hoping to prove my 'intelligence' by guessing correctly.

That was an example of self awareness.

That said, what would I suggest? I would go with the truth but whose truth? We don't really have enough information yet and won't until this is over. Therefore, a reasonable way forward has to be decided. Then we need to do that which supports that which has been decided.

First of all, state your assumptions.

These assumptions need to be monitored to see if reality proves them wrong.

Second, seek a general consensus. Is the chosen course of action reasonable to the populace?

Finally, explain all your actions and requests in terms of the first two points.

In the UK, this is what happens during the daily covid update. What happens in your country is beyond my ability to care about.

What is happening is happening and could not be happening in any other way. This is the society we live in. Things could be different but that sounds scary!

That said, my assumption is that this diease (potentially) leaves 'too many' people either dead or with serious complications of unknown duration. In which case, the UK Govt reaction was and is reasonable. Going forward, we need to do exactly what Boris will suggest later today. I have no reason to believe his advisors aren't competent and I think it reasonable to asume that Boris is able to direct the public as necessary.

The assumptions are in constant review and things may well change as we go forward. No need to fear mistakes, miss steps or errors. There is no need for fear. Take note of those who wish to create fear and ignore them.

Perhaps I am rambling

Let me attempt to be concise.

Fear prevents flow.

Knowledge is a barrier to understanding. 

Without flow, there is no understanding. (Give that some critical thought.)