Are you in a state of Flow?

Have you ever felt like your life is just flowing, from one thing to another without you having to plan too much of it or stress about it? Things are just working out by themselves.

Flow is a concept commonly understood to be “in the zone”. In a work or doing context, flow happens when our skill levels are optimally stretched by the challenges we are facing, not too much and not too little. In these moments, we feel ease, joy and achievement. We are growing and the time flies.

However, flow is much bigger than how you feel about work. Being in flow in life is when you move from one thing to another effortlessly and things are working out not how you would have planned it to happen but how they are meant to happen.

You probably would know what I am talking about if you have ever experienced this state of blissful presence. This experience might have happened during your travels or in your conversations with friends.

Lately, I have been reflecting a lot on my experiences of flow, my coachees' experiences of flow as well as the flow that my coachees and I cultivate during a coaching session. I realised there are three components that enable this flow:

1. We have a deep sense of trust

Firstly and most importantly, we have a deep sense of trust and faith that things will work out and happen when they are meant to happen.

Having this trust is very important because without it, we stress, we procrastinate, we over plan and overdo. We get caught up in the fight or flight mode. With trust, we allow ourselves to relax, expand, discover and create. We are still and we listen to our intuition.

2. We put in the right amount of efforts intuitively

People often get being in flow confused with being passive. Being in flow actually doesn't mean we do nothing and just go with what is.

It means putting in the right amount of efforts at the right time. When we listen to our intuitions, we naturally know what is the right amount and the right moment to apply those efforts. Sometimes that right amount of efforts is not doing anything as things are outside of our control and other times it means we do the groundwork to make luck happen in our favour.

3. We have a sense of purpose

This is when we know deeply what makes our lives meaningful and we are guided by our values.

When we are aware of our values and live in alignment, they guide us to the right actions. In this way, we are getting closer to our purpose and to who we are meant to be.

I hope this has inspired you to have a think about when you were last in flow and what enabled that flow.

If you want a coaching conversation about having more flow in your work and life, book me for a 30min free coaching conversation using the link below.