As 2020 start, people have resolutions and promises for themselves but there are a few people who have ‘word of the year’ that serves their intent for the year.
I have been pondering on the idea of ‘Word for the year’ which means you approach your life based on that “word”. The word is chosen intuitively, on what seems right to you keeping the coming year in mind.
This year my intuition guided me to the word “Flow“.
My effort is to bring my awareness to the sense of “Flow“, whenever I am on any task, be it- raising my boys, cooking, driving, giving a presentation at my work, watching my favorite show or even when I am doing my writing.
My day starts with meditating on the intention of “Being in the Flow”.
My affirmation for the day is “I AM in FLOW with my life.”
There are times when I slip through it to the regular or ego mindset where I perform my tasks on auto pilot accompanied with excessive thinking or analyzing of any situation, but as soon I become aware of it, I try to bring back my intention to getting back in “Flow“. It is like a practice that needs to be continuously being worked on.
If your word of the year is intuitively set, it won’t feel too much effort coming back to it every time you slipped through.
The below words from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi from his book – Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, sums up this feeling of “Flow” in such simple words:
“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we
make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.”
As I am contemplating through “Flow” during this year, I thought of sharing some quotes on ‘being in the flow’:
- “Go with the flow. Force nothing. Let it happen – trusting that whichever way it goes. It’s for the best.” Mandy Hale
- “Surrender to the flow.” Mike Gordon
- “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”― Alan Wilson Watts
- “May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.”― Rainer Maria Rilke
- “The river makes the water flow. That’s how I live. I just let everything flow. Flow with the river.” Vitor Belfort
- If you just go with the flow, no matter what weird things happen along the way, you always end up exactly where you belong.” Tom Upton
- “There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present.” James Joyce
- “The more in harmony you are with the flow of your own existence, the more magical life becomes.” Adyashanti
- “Life is so much easier when I allow myself to be myself and go with the flow.” Taylor Schilling
- “Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.” Chuang Tzu
- “Going with the flow is responding to cues from the universe. When you go with the flow, you’re surfing Life force. It’s about wakeful trust and total collaboration with what’s showing up for you.” Danielle LaPorte
- “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.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- “I just go with the flow, so any style can be in my music – that makes it exciting.” Yoko Ono
- “Let’s make things exist and then judge later. Don’t cancel the process of creativity too early: Let it flow.” – Ross Lovegrove
Let’s be in the flow!!
M
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