Day 3 – Feel Flow

Today, we’ll learn the “Feel Flow” technique and its benefits for mental health.

In Unified Mindfulness, Flow refers to movement or change in sensations, emphasizing the positive aspects of impermanence.

Feel Flow focuses on physical and emotional body sensations, leaving visual and auditory experiences in the background. The technique involves noting and labeling any movement or change in the body as “Flow.”

Some examples of flow in the body include the motion of your body breathing, your heartbeat, tingling sensations, or changes in temperature on your skin.

 

Practicing Feel Flow offers unique mental health benefits including:

• Increased resilience: Focusing on changing sensations helps prevent getting stuck on unpleasant feelings, enabling faster recovery from challenging experiences. For example, noticing the fluid nature of frustration can bring peace and help bounce back more quickly.

In moments when I’ve felt anxious or panicked, I’ve focused on the flowing nature of my experience. By shifting my perspective, I’ve been able to transform a challenging state into a more neutral or even slightly pleasant experience of energy.

• Enhanced Mind-Body Connection: Practicing the Feel Flow technique encourages you to tune into the flow of sensations and energy in the body. This heightened awareness of the relationship between the mind and body can lead to a better understanding of your own emotions and reactions, contributing to overall mental health and self-awareness.

• Greater adaptability: Recognizing Flow helps our minds become more flexible and adaptable, better handling life’s inevitable changes. This adaptability can lead to less resistance to change in work and personal relationships. I support my team at work through change by championing the positive aspects of it, a skill that I’ve honed through my awareness of Flow.

 

Here are the instructions for Feel Flow:

1. Bring your attention to body sensations and check for any movement or change.
2. If and when you find a moving or changing body sensation;
3. Acknowledge it.
4. Label it “Flow”.
5. Focus intently on it.
6. Let attention move on again – it can either return to the same flowing sensation or to another.
7. Repeat the process every few seconds, keeping a steady pace.

Today’s recording is an 8-minute guided session on Feel Flow.

Play today’s 8-minute Feel Flow session below: