Mastering Flow State with Byron and Michael

0:00 Today, we're talking about Flow State. Let's go. So interestingly Flow State can mean a lot of things and can apply to a lot. So I would say this is pretty gigantic topic. So let's jump right into it. What does Flow State to you Byron? What does it mean?

0:15 Kind of like to dip my toes in personally jumping in as a bit sometimes abrasive. The water is cold. Okay, let's introduce the topic then. Well, if I think about, you know, like the cold plunge, you guys done a cold plunge, I'm sure you have If you just jump in, it's kind of nice but you're prepared for it.

0:35 But when it comes to Flow State, if you force it, it may not happen. Hmm. So you're probably wondering what is Flow State? Well, I'm sure you have your definition and I'd like to hear what you think it is Michael but for me, the flow state is the most creative. Access point in your system.

0:57 Most creative access point in your system. Mmm, and it's a consistent flow. So I mean it can definitely break but you don't just enter a flow state for a few seconds. I mean. Yeah you're in, you're in the beginning stages of a flow state, but you don't go deep enough to really get in the flow, right?

1:21 Welcome to the going pro yoga podcast, nugget series. My name is Michael Henry, and I'm Byron de Marseille in these short 15 minute episodes. We're going to be answering some of the most common questions in the yoga industry.

1:34 So you can walk away with the answers in a short period of time. That's right. Michael with each topic, that we choose will be discussing it from two different perspectives, the teacher, and the student. I'll be approaching these questions as a physiotherapist or physical therapist with over 10 years experience, treating some of the most common and complex injuries.

1:51 And my guidance will be from the perspective of having taught 7000 classes, roughly 10,000 hours. Hours over 10 years, Welcome to our podcast. So another way of thinking about it at least in my brain just to make it easier is kind of like runner's high which is kind of a thing that people understand you can't just like get into a runner's high. There's a period of time period of running that happens. You get over this block Runners block or whatever it is. And all of a sudden you're just

2:17 like, you know, kind of in this Flow State where you can keep going, you know, if it's 30 minutes, 40 minutes for those people that understand that analogy to me, that's what I'm hearing. It's like a you you can't just like, get into it. You need to actually Allowed to happen. And you don't know when exactly is going to happen. You just need to kind of like surrender to it, to some degree, and then trust, and obviously it's a different example with the running piece, but at least

2:43 to me is a little bit more tangible to understand like, okay. And then once you're in the running, say for those that don't know, like you could just Coast for another 30 40 minutes, and it doesn't feel challenging, it feels easy, feels flowy, feels natural, which I think, is a lot of the same Properties or characteristics of what Flow State means for some people. Yeah, Michael win.

3:00 In in your life. Do you feel the like the most in Flow State? On a consistent basis when I'm talking about anatomy and the human body. Hmm, easily sense. Yeah. Like I could do that for hours and hours and hours and like not get tired about it, which is how I was able to do physio for, you know, 10 hours a day sometimes, because I'm talking about the human body. And like I'm helping people with their injuries and like I'm in the unique thing about me is

3:29 like, even though I teach Anatomy for yoga teachers and support them, like I did this for student for for my clients since I was, you know, a new grad. Right? Because I just love to explain to people what's going on in their body, help them to understand anatomically. Because then I learned that they will, they'll respond better to my advice.

3:50 If they understand more thoroughly, why I'm giving the advice. Yeah. So how do you feel when you are in this Flow State feels easy because easy? So it feels good. It's really good. Hmm. Let's go the other direction. So we're in your life.

4:04 Do you feel like maybe flow state is blocked? Mmm. It's not happening is easy. Probably without a specific example. Just things that I'm not familiar with or that are new to me feels kind of rigid or rocky. Maybe like playing a new instrument or I don't know getting up into I mean getting up in to do a public speaking or something like that or doing like an open-mike without having anything prepared, which would be very much an opportunity to enter Flow State possibly or

4:35 just a way to feel like you're going to crash and burn. So how do you feel whenever that happens? I've never done it. No, I mean like just in general, like when you get blocked with Flow State, what does that bring? Do you feel anything?

4:46 Like, maybe like frustration or Like I want to give up or like I don't you know just like a challenge or discomfort. Yeah discomfort yeah I mean we probably were either inflow state or we're not right, you know, so you gotta I would assume that the flow state is a bit more elusive than the non Flow State. But some people seem to have mastered the ability to just flow just flow 100% of the time, right? Just kind of go with the flow.

5:19 So what brings it, look, what I'm curious about now is like what? Obviously we know, it feels good and it feels easy to be in a flow state. So those are the reasons to do to be in the Flow State and maybe also to be creative. We're like you just start to like open up this. This filter that used to be there, like just kind of comes off and you do, you aren't filtering information as much? I could do this in yoga teaching, I try a long time ago. I kind of committed to this

5:47 unprepared yet structured way to where I could go in with enough of A plan where I felt quite, you know, safe, right? But comfortable enough with myself to where I could just go off the cuff of what is coming up that day within me.

6:05 And even though sometimes I'm not necessary liking what comes out. Sometimes I do if I'm to look at it, if I just stay in that state, it feels easy. Mmm. Just like you said. so then I started thinking about hmm, you know the stress of not being in Flow State you know because not everyone's Super Creative but I think Flow State can still happen for the accountants out there out there and other people who work with numbers or write something that a creative mind might not necessarily gravitate

6:37 towards, but You know, it's see I lost my flow state right there, as I started to lose it, you know, it just happens, it is happens. And it takes a probably a little bit of let's call it. It takes a willingness and a Readiness to, to be in that state.

7:03 So which means you're confronting fear, right? So courage. Yeah. Courage to confront confront, the fear solutely, interesting, okay. So a couple things came to mind when we're when you were talking about. I was trying to think of different ways to view it because the Flow State, you know, it's doesn't seem to have a concrete like definition, that's kind of floats around it, but to me, I'm thinking of like a Like a focused trance or like a spontaneous Focus trance, where you can't be prepared for

7:33 it. So spontaneous, You're focused in such a way that you're flowing in a direction and it's very narrow, kind of type of thing and then the trances that you you're just in it and then you're not really getting out of it. So it's almost like yeah, just like a really focused spontaneous trance.

7:51 I don't know that those are the words that come to mind to me, you know, for for the listeners, like, what I'm wondering like to myself, like what does the other terminology used for a flow state, right? And what came to mind is channeling and like a spiritual World in a spiritual World channeling? Sure, whether you're channeling, what's your channeling is up to you, but just being available and open is the way I look at that open and to the That's

8:19 already within you and without hesitating just accessing it and then spitting it out. It comes. Yeah. Which is like, what rappers do when they freestyle sometimes? What about hypnosis do? You think it's kind of a hypnotic State?

8:35 Hmm, that's an interesting one. That's an interesting one. Who I know who we should bring in on us as a guest house. That Rusty. We should bring Rusty. Absolutely. Okay. Rusty's a rest, he's my neighbor who does hypnotherapy?

8:49 He knows all about this. Will bring it on. You can super interesting can speak to that. Okay. Okay. So the other thing that I wanted to say about Flow State just so that we continue to keep it interesting. We got about five minutes left. Here is the benefits of leaving Flow State or if you constantly because you mentioned before.

9:06 Like what if, you know, some people just constantly live in Flow State and I was like, okay so flow constant flow. State is like, you know if at least in my world is this focused attention? This kind of like this trance and I watched a mini-documentary yesterday on Netflix called, I think how to improve your focus, but I was talking about the mind and saying that, like, when you're focused and stuff like that, it can be really helpful. But if you're focused for too

9:33 long and I think it's like a 90-minute Cycles then you don't step out of that focus. And you don't see everything else that's going on around you. So there's advantages of being in that focused State and actually stopping and coming back out of it to look at everything as well.

9:46 So when you're talking about Flow State, that's the kind of the thing that came up. It's like, okay, Flow State. It's great to be in it. But if you're in it all the time, or you seeing everything else that's going on, like are you missing your deadlines in your appointments and all the tangible things that I think of quantitative thing daily life?

10:00 Absolutely? Well, yeah, well, we're going to dig in, I would say it's possible to master the flow state where you're just reading and responding to the situation that you already know your day. And so you don't break your trance, let's call it trance to to transition to the next It's part of your day, but I would say it's probably a more commonly ingrained habitually to break the flow state, in order to transition to this meeting to that person to this task.

10:34 And let's say, you know, household chores believe it or not probably find the Flow State. You know when you do them the process to get to do them, you probably to from whatever you were doing before is probably a Breaking of the flow. Because most people don't like to do the dishes, right? You know, so how can you find that way to maybe we're talking about transitions, right?

10:57 That's really what this one's about switching between tasks, how to send out flows and how to stay focused on that one task in yoga Vinyasa. At least we use the breath to link us to the next transition probably you know so helps you stay very focused as almost like a practice challenging to do it.

11:16 Perhaps on the practice done unconsciously, Expand your, I guess awareness of your breath till you're not even realizing you're just easy with your breath all the time. Maybe that's what close that has. Maybe that's a flow state is could be hmm, interesting.

11:35 Well. Shall we make up a song and see if we can prove this flow state is like a rap song. Well it's just I can't plan it too much of this true but a little structures good. I know I'm doing a song. Okay. Okay. Are you in the song? I'll try my best.

11:51 Okay, all right, here we go. So Here we go. We are going to flow going all the way up. Rise to the state, never know, when you might alleviate that pressure, that's going on upstairs in your brain, you disguise it as pain. I'm insane and I never really know when I'm going down with my plan.

12:19 I got the flow. Damn, I was ready for you to take over and I wanted to but I was so into it that I was like I kind of want to see where it's gonna go. I was I was waiting for one of these you transform me into your Rhythm I couldn't. I couldn't look away.

12:41 Maybe grab a car crash or rappers have like easier access to that point. I'm sure it's something that can be refined over time. It's true. You know, now that that's true for sure have more words, more vocabulary or more, in that space.

12:56 I mean you're doing it's like to me, it's actually Carving out the neural Pathways to some degree. If it's a new neural pathway, it's harder to enter Flow State but if it's a neural pathway that you've Pat, you've created and you've, you know, spent a lot of time in and it's used actively often then accessing that him staying within that pathway is probably really nice. For example, my, you know, me talking about Anatomy, like I've been studying and talking about

13:23 it since I was like 18 years old, 20 years, right? So it's like my neural pathway for talking about that shit. It is like the Deep trench man, right? Well, and on top of that, like, we're different, you know, not just you and I, but me, and everybody, and you, and everybody, and you, you know, we all have like, not everybody's lyrical, you know, and able to just make up words, it's not necessarily within their, their set of skills, but they could

13:48 brainstorm amazing idea or something, totally that comes from their past life experience and it doesn't come out as like a, my melody or a song or anything like that, right? Right. So I think the low State given so many different angles to the view.

14:03 Yeah. When you put that flow State like on a the filter of Michael or you know on the filter of Byron or somebody else. You know it's going to come out, completely different, totally the beauty of it and I kind of think maybe this is going deep Beyond deep but for me it's like well makes life so natural, you know.

14:21 It's like the most natural manifestations happen this way. You know, when we're we're open and available to like whatever the universe is trying to come like come out of us instead of forcing it right? Yeah. Yeah. That courage piece courage piece which is challenging for a lot of people fear fear is powerful and we all societies built around fear with like insurance and everything is just like yeah.

14:45 So therefore we manipulate our own improve the you know, whatever comes out of us. Things like activate it and to fit into the world. Yeah we stop it from it being exposed. Posing it bringing it out. Now, it's crazy. We could probably talk about this for a while, but it's been 15 minutes.

15:04 And you know what? I feel, pretty good. Yeah, bow, I don't know. I don't know what happened for the last 15 minutes though. I was in Flow. State tickets. I'm still just waiting to turn this this this episode off so I can continue wrapping.

15:19 Oh, you don't want to rap with people listening, I mean, I don't know. You know, I mean I know we could always edit it. We could out of that. Yeah. Okay. All right, let's wrap it up then. Okay, let's do it. Wrap it up. No pun intended. Or unintended I was on Facebook.

15:34 I got unfriended. Okay, okay, let me interrupt you there. I don't, I can't let the world know about your skills so you're gonna have to just pause and you know what be honest, you gave him a little bit of a taste earlier few minutes ago, so if they liked it they can they can request more. But we gotta we gotta stay in Integrity of our episode. And if you just wrap man you just going to blow everyone away.

15:54 We're not going to go turn off the mic so we got to end up side. Very true cool. Alright. Thanks so much for listening everyone if you have any Ins or thoughts about this topic Flow State what it means to love to hear from you as always.

16:06 So reach out to us on Instagram, send us an email, send us a voice note, hit us that we'd love to hear from you. Take care and we'll speak to you next week bow-bow. All right. Listen up everyone, Paul Byron and myself have been working so hard on putting together a platform dedicated specifically to yoga teachers and the good news is it's almost ready for you soon.

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