Selflessness – get out of your way

Written by Stuart Haden on February 6, 2019

In a recent posting I introduced the 4 characteristics (selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness) of a flow state described by Kotler and Wheal in  Stealing Fire. Here I am going to take each characteristic in turn and dive a bit deeper.

Actually when we are in flow large swathes of the prefrontal cortex shuts down (transient hypofrontality) and we loose track. We loose track of ourselves. Silencing our inner critic and keeping the ego at bay. Risk taking increases as the sense of self is suspended. Out of our heads and into the body. Immersed in the environment as opposed to self talk. An off switch if ever there was one.

AWOL – we have gone missing. Now is the chance to deeply connect, push yourself further, break away from the pack and let your sub conscious take hold. Peace and harmony allowing for contemplation and freedom. Challenging our long held beliefs and the stories that we think have served us so well. Get out of your way, objective distance. You can see the wood for the trees. Or as Kotler and Wheal posit, “By stepping outside ourselves, we gain perspective. We become objectively aware of our costumes rather than subjectively fused with them.”

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Chartres. This posting was inspired by Stealing Fire, Chapter 2: why it matters