How nature can influence our flow
Are you aware if the moon is waning or waxing today? Have you felt the incoming wind this morning or noticed any of the other signs of the shifting seasons? Have you registered if it was a high tide this morning? Or did you jump into your car, kept at a stable 20 degrees year-round by your trusty air con and only got out of it again in the underground parking of your company's office building?
We have lost touch with nature, its cycles, its ebbs and flows.
But just because we fail to notice them it does not mean they don't continue to influence us. The moon moves our entire oceans twice every day. We are 60 to 70% water so who would argue that the moon doesn’t impact us?
Why does losing touch with nature, and failing to notice matter in the context of flow?
Flow as described by the late Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has 9 dimensions and almost all of them have to do with awareness. Today we are starting to understand what flow is psychologically, physically, and from a neuro-scientific perspective. What do all these perspectives have in common? Flow is a state of balance. Aroused but not too stressed.
Connecting to nature in this context can do two things for us. It teaches us awareness of what happens within us and around us. Sitting mindfully focusing on all our senses, perceiving what happens within ourselves. Registering how our internal weather is impacted by the weather outside, by the changing seasons teaches us to become aware and adapt. But it also can help us to be in the here and now, focus and pause. Feeling the wind and the sun on our faces keeps us present. Did you know that we cannot be stressed when we are in awe? And there are many moments where nature puts us in awe. Sunsets, rainbows, turquoise beaches, powerful breaking ways. All great prerequisites to get into flow.
In my work, I draw on ancient knowledge just as well as on the latest science to understand, become aware, and slide into flow more frequently. Let's find the connection to nature on your personal Flow Map.
