I’m sure you’ve heard of the “flow state” – the sense that you’re completely in tune with what you’re doing, there’s no friction, you’re “in the zone.” Usually it’s referring to a mental state that comes with engaging in productive action. But I’m going to take it one step further and broaden the definition a little bit. The flow state can extend to all aspects of your life, your body, your relationships, even your finances.
What is Flow?
Consciousness loves to move, it loves change, it loves to flow smoothly like an unencumbered stream. Every aspect of the entire Universe is oscillating, either moving towards unity or diversity (Uni=unity + verse=diversity). The machine of this movement is the creation cycle-creation to maintenance to destruction then back to creation again. When something is maintained too long, we have stagnation. No movement. Stuckness. The halting of evolution. Because the one constant in the relative world is change, this halting cannot stand for long, and so destruction comes in to break the dam. This is Karma. When we are in the “flow state,” it feels fantastic, and that is because there is no stagnation, no friction. Consciousness is moving, so is happy, therefore we are happy.
Flow in health
Many non-Western health systems are based on the concept that where there is flow in the body, there is health, and where there is stagnation, disease can fester. If you’ve ever been to an acupuncturist, you can feel the increase in the flow of energy cycling through your limbs. With Ayurveda, practitioners will treat you by removing ama, or undigested matter, from your body that gunks up your systems, both gross and subtle. Manifestation moves in the direction of Being to subtle to gross, so ailments have their source in the more subtle layers of consciousness. This is one of the reasons meditation is so important for the body’s health. It removes the stress (which is a form of stagnation) in the subtle so it cannot find it’s manifestation in the body in the form of a disease or condition.
Flow in finances
This is a hard one for most people to wrap their heads around. The flow of money is a form of a flow of consciousness. That means it likes to move. Any form of hoarding is a form of stagnation, even money. If money is coming to you, it’s for a purpose. It is potential and potential wants to move into the kinetic. With meditation, you can better tune into what the most evolutionary purpose is for the resources coming your way. It’s best to think of them as not “yours,” but a means of doing what needs to be done. And there’s always more where that came from. When you serve your higher self, she always funds her own projects.
Flow in relationships
There's a myth that the ideal relationship is two people who are really, really close all the time. That they meet and they remain in the "honeymoon phase" for the entirety of their relationship, a phase frozen in time. Relationships need to evolve just as people do. When two people evolve together, they form an alliance, a third entity that needs to change in order to survive. In this kind of pairing, they become allies in each other's healing and the relationship is a vehicle for growth. And they don't always want to be together! This is stagnation. And too much unity gets boring. Just like the oscillating universe, when there's too much unity, move to diversity. We need to do our own thing sometimes, go away by ourselves, and when we reunite we get to experience the joy of coming together.
Flow in life
We can look at all actions in our life through the lens of “flow.” The ones that are closest to the most evolutionary action for us and everything else, this is the “path of kriya.” It’s the center of the river. No impediments, no rocks, it’s both the fastest part of the river and the smoothest ride. Then there are the actions that are most anti-evolutionary. The ever repeating known. This is the “path of karma.” Every time we make the same ignorance-laden decisions we’ve made before it pushes us to the side of the river where the jagged rocks and blockages are. There is a lot of pressure from the water trying to move you along here, but not a lot of forward motion. It’s rough and there is less “flow.” Meditation is what clears away the stress in our systems that interferes with our ability to hear the guidance from our inner selves telling us at all times, “what is the next right action?” or “where is the flow?”
