The Two Types of Flow
Deeper explanation of the state and the sage
Type 1 - Better Flow
Creative and energetic flow is often impeded by unconscious aspects of yourself that were repressed or rejected early in life for social or survival reasons, but that over time have become a obstacle or impediment.
Stream work involved individuation, the process of examining these shadow elements so that they can be accepted and embraced. Often what is required is a shift in perspective to see the repressed elements through the eyes of compassion and understanding. Other times wounded or exiled parts can be brought into a better relationship or connection to your True Self. Techniques such as unburdening of parts and reassignment of roles can improve inner harmony and allow your thoughts and creativity to flow more naturally.
Another kind of flow is that feeling of rapt attention and enjoyment when you are fully immersed in focused activities, often oblivious to the passage of time. Psychologists discovered that this kind of flow is experienced most when you face a very challenging or complex task, but a task you have confidence you can complete.
Dr. John Vervaeke recently said, “When you are in the flow state, the egoic self-image drops away because all of that talk in your head about maintaining your egoic self image — how do I look? How am I doing? Am I failing? Am I succeeding? What are they thinking? All of that goes silent. This is a defining feature of a flow state. And yet, what doesn’t go away is your agency. In fact your agency and your experience of the world are enhanced. And what that shows you is the ego is lying to you when it tells you that it’s self image is yourself.”
This important distinction between your ego’s sense of self, and your True Self, is discussed in How Parts Relate to Self:
I will also be writing more about this in the upcoming post, “True Self.”
Flow in this sense, then can increase both our experience of being in the world, and reduce our anxiety or depression by taking our attention off of the source of our anxiety or depression.
Aha!
Dr. Vervaeke discusses how flow comes from a cascade of insights. With Aha moments and insight, we have the sense of “optimally gripping the world” or seeing reality deeply. He says that the more you experience flow, the more you have a sense of meaning in your life. See Dr. Vervaeke discuss this idea:
Lets face it, much of life is challenging and complex and our wounds, anxiety, and depression prevent flow. According to this idea, our life can be deeply meaningful if we feel up for the challenge. Unfortunately many of us are lacking the confidence and so the complexity and difficulty of life isn’t an opportunity for flow, it is just a series of difficult experiences.
Sometimes the biggest factor that makes the difference in these situations is having an empathic reflective coach who can remind you of your strengths and help you focus on the resources you have within you to succeed. In this sense, coaching is about helping you build both skills and confidence in order that your life can flow.
Type 2 - The Mercurial Sage
The second type of stream work is the work of the “stream enterer.” In Theravāda Buddhism, a stream enterer (a sotāpanna) is a person who fully understand the Four Noble Truths and have committed to being a good, kind, compassionate person. The path they take is one of abandonment and letting go. Letting go of the idea of a permanent self, letting go of misgivings and doubt, and letting go of attachment to rules and vows. Conversely, they embrace a unity view of all things, faith in the spiritual endeavor, and development of a principled approach to ethics within a community of fellow stream enterers. This is, of course, my interpretation of the meaning, uncoupled from the historic and cultural language.
What is important about Stream Enterers, is that they have had “direct, irreversible insight into the nature of reality.” This experience of seeing reality deeply is one that I have sought much of my life. The stoics have a word for decisive philosophical conversion - epistrophē. It is the moment a person genuinely grasps that virtue is the only true good. Before that moment, you’re fumbling in the dark. After it, you’re oriented correctly, even if imperfectly. This idea is also captured in Plato’s cave analogy when the prisoners turn and begin moving towards the light, and in the Christian tradition of metanoia.
Ichnographically, many of these traditions place the entry of water as a central image, with it’s connotations of washing, cleansing, and flowing. In the Buddhist tradition water symbolizes purification, fluidity, and the dissolution of rigid ego-boundaries. In the Christian tradition it symbolizes dying to the old self, referred to in some traditions as the false self, and emerging out of the water to a new life.
One problem with both traditions is that they mark this transition as one into “the true view” or even “the truth,” and this idea that one traditions has the “really right” view of things leads to a sort of arrogance about the group that I find counterproductive for true personal and spiritual growth.
However this pitfall can be avoided with the model of the mercurial sage. The sage in ancient Greek and pagan traditions, was someone who achieved a complete, stable alignment of reason and virtue — analogous to full liberation. But sage as a designation was almost impossible to achieve.