People often ask me, “What exactly do you mean by Flow, Ange?” Well, let’s just say it doesn’t involve anything ‘monthly’ or leg-crossing on trampolines.
I like to think of Flow as an energy. And before you start eye rolling like this is some fluffy purple woo woo stuff (it’s most definitely not; I was an academic, just saying) remember that it was the scientist Einstein who said, “Everything is just energy”.
Scientists measure energy in frequencies of Hertz (Hz) or waves per second. The chair you’re sitting on vibrates at a frequency that is different from the (pretty cool) mag you’re holding, which vibrates differently to the brownie you’re about to inhale (yes, I know).
According to Dr David Hawkins, our emotions also vibrate at different frequencies too. His scale clearly shows how emotions range from as high as 600Hz when experiencing peace and 540Hz for joy (which are very expansive) to 150Hz for anger and 100Hz for fear. Eeek. The lowest being guilt at 30Hz and shame at 20Hz (which are very contracting).
It’s also known in sciencey realms that vibrations attract ‘like’ vibrations. Therefore, if you’re angry at losing your phone, you’re more likely to have other things happen to create anger, like being put on hold for 40mins when calling the phone company or missing Bitchin Bingo on a Monday night.
Additionally, according to the organisation Access Consciousness there is also a personal vibration, the frequency of YOU, which naturally is your highest vibration.
When I talk about accessing your flow, I mean tapping into a high frequency, which is the vibration of you. The authentic you. Can you feel that? It’s when you’re not trying to live up to other people’s expectations, not living in judgment of you, not carrying the past (yours or your family’s) into your being. Not vibrating at those low frequency emotions.
When you’re in this space it feels expansive, as if anything is possible. It feels easy and effortless, as if things just ‘are’. There’s no element of needing to force or control things (we actually can’t force or control energy anyway).
I like to use the analogy of a flower. It grows according to how it is supposed to grow. It doesn’t judge itself to the flower next to it (“Oh man, you’re so much taller than me, I’m not good enough”), nor does it put any barriers up to receiving exactly what it needs (“Gee, the soil looks a bit depleted today, maybe I won’t take as many nutrients. Maybe I won’t grow into my potential because it’s mean to the soil.”)
No.
The flower inherently understands its place in nature. It accesses what it needs to be what it was designed to be. The flower is in the flow of life, shall we say.
I’ve spent the past six years learning and teaching what kind of elements are required for us to access our flow. I’ll share these few things:
- Being mindful is 101. When you live in your head (always thinking of stuff) then you’re not in the present moment, and your flow is in the present. Kinda important.
- Learning to trust your intuition, your inner beacon, your knowing, accesses your flow. We don’t follow it enough these days. There’s too much noise and information overload – a major hindrance. Tuning in with your own Yes/No (a Yes will feel light and easy and a No will feel heavy or hard) is key.
- Voicing what you know. Your voice is your personal power, so using it means choosing for you. If it feels heavy to clean up after quite capable teenagers, then voicing this is critically important. When your intuition knows and you DON’T voice it, you’ll get throat issues (tonsillitis, strep, thyroid etc). I always get a scratchy throat when mad about something but too fearful to speak up. And remember, fear and anger are low Hz, which take you further away from your flow.
- Being aware of the power of our thoughts. Thoughts are also an energy and frequency. If you’ve ever seen the Apple Experiment I do with my clients and in my classes (you can find this on my Instagram account), then you’ll understand how thoughts do indeed affect matter. I also did a Masters Thesis on Appreciative Inquiry, which is worth a google to demonstrate the power of focusing on what you want and not on what you don’t want.
- Receiving more. Receiving is one of the most important things we do yet it’s often the hardest. We are pretty crap at accepting compliments, or letting our friend pay for our drink. Yet when we look at babies or animals or flowers, we see how natural it is to get the love and attention and support and nutrients we need to be in our natural Flow.
I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to access Flow is learning it with others, in a group. There’s a collective energy of change and it’s pretty powerful in itself.
For me, accessing Flow is a daily priority. I’ve found that the more I choose to access it the quicker I can get back to it after times of challenge; back to that flow of ease, calm, and joyandfun.