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The Power of Flow:
Practical Ways to Transform Your Life With Meaningful Coincidence
by Charlene Belitz and Meg Lundstrom
Excerpts from Chapter Four
The Nine Attributes That Create the Power of Flow
(c) All rights reserved
1.
COMMITMENT
If there were only one personal attribute we need for flow, one that makes
everything else possible, it would be commitment: to our own growth and
expansion, to our family, to our chosen profession, to truth, and to the
greatest whole. With commitment, we say yes to life, and we don’t just
mouth the word. We take a stand for our deepest values, and we do everything
it takes to live by them….
2.
HONESTY
Honesty, like Janus, the Greek god of hearth and home, has two faces: one
that looks outward and one that faces inward. Inwardly, as we enter more
deeply into flow, we seek integration, the coming together of all of our
sometimes-conflicting parts into one powerful whole. This requires a solid
commitment to identify and break through layers of misconceptions,
self-deceptions, emotional scars, limiting and self-sabotaging beliefs,
outdated responses, internal conflicts, buried dreams, hopes, and fears—all
the accumulated baggage of human existence. We are ruthlessly honest with
ourselves, no matter how uncomfortable that may sometimes be. We pursue the
truth because we know it will set us free from old wounds that interfere
with our experience of flow. We question and probe our own inner world to
see what’s real, what’s true, and what’s not. The result of this quest for
the truth is a deep self-understanding and a peace that can come only when
we truly know ourselves…..
3.
COURAGE
Courage does not require rappelling across rocky cliffs but rather, day in
and day out, overcoming our fears by stepping outside our personal comfort
zone, following our intuition, and making ourselves available to the larger
plan. It means we transcend our limited self-definitions to be open to new
information and stretch beyond the way we’ve always done things in the past.
It means we listen within and sometimes turn left when everyone else seems
to be going right. It allows us to risk ridicule to create something new, or
to risk rejection when we are being true to our sense of what’s right…..
4.
PASSION
Flow is engendered by passion—passion for life, for knowledge, for a cause,
for a relationship, for truth. Passion means caring deeply about something
beyond ourselves. It means engaging with it at intense levels. It means
letting go of self-protective caution to involve ourselves wholeheartedly
with what we love…..
5.
IMMEDIACY
Living in flow means living fully in the present. We don’t hang out in the
past rehashing old issues. We don’t hang out in the future trying to
second-guess how things will turn out. We settle all of our attention on
each interaction, whether it’s washing a dish, making love, attending a
meeting, or reading to a child. We are fully engaged in whatever we are
doing, and time seems rich and full and resonant and still, all at once.
This state of awareness is called immediacy…..
6.
OPENNESS
Being ready and willing and available to a wide range of possibility makes
the power of flow abundant in our daily life. When we are open, we waste
little energy in warding things off; we do not erect walls between ourselves
and the world. Instead, we embrace whatever develops, for we know that
everything we experience has value. Events unfold naturally and effortlessly
because, without preconceptions or judgments, without fear or anger, we are
willing to do whatever a situation requires….
7. RECEPTIVITY
Being in flow means that we are ready to take our part in the unfolding of
events. We listen to our inner voice for messages, we observe all that
happens around us—especially synchronicity—and we then move in harmony with
the moment. But we don’t attempt to control the outcome of those events.
Instead, we hold open the space in which potentiality exists. Lake a dancer
poised in the still moment at the start of a movement, we can go in any
direction the music suggests….
8.
POSITIVITY
In positivity, we seek out the value in every situation, at every turn,
emphasize it, and work actively with it. That’s not to say that we are
Pollyannas or blind to the negative potential of a situation; through
experience, we’ve learned that in the positive side lies the potential for
movement. We believe everything happens for a reason, and that perfection is
found in each moment. As a result, we don’t shrink from difficult people or
situations or challenges—we move toward them…..
9.
TRUST
One thing can switch the experience of flow on and off in an instant: trust
in flow itself…..
Introduction
Chapter 1: Understanding Flow
Chapter 2: Understanding Synchronicity
Order The Power of Flow
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