Flow: Starting Under Normal Circumstances

One of the most important aspects of this kind of cooking and living is working to establish flow. All the bits and pieces need to work together and make better things happen.

At Cascade Living I encourage you to find efficiency in your day to day living and even your thinking. If you gently observe how you do things, you will notice where things easily flow one into the other and jobs around the house happen with no stress at all. The way flow works in my experience though is things will flow, flow, flow, stop. Eventually I hit a blockage or obstacle that disrupts my flow. When this happens I react in different ways depending on the circumstances. Sometimes I just keep going and try to catch up with the flow again. Sometimes I stop and give myself a break and try again later. Sometimes, I get pretty upset that my flow was disrupted. Unfortunately, flow takes thought and practice to establish.

So how do you start?

Everything needs a place to go. Everything needs a time to happen. Over time the things that need to happen and the time available will fluctuate. Needs will change and so will priorities so flow is also a journey not a destination. It is a goal that will never be finished and done. The benefit of that is you get to enjoy the moments when it works right while they are happening. You will find flow and lose it again. So when you find it breathe it in, and when you lose it relax, you will find it again.

So start with one thing. If you have some energy and do not feel completely overwhelmed,  I recommend looking around your house and finding the thing that is bugging you the most, while you are working to put it off. If you can just do it, do it right now. If you can't figure out where to start, try to break the job into smaller pieces. Get a piece of paper and write down a list of the parts. Set yourself a time frame to do the list, like: Do one thing on the list each commercial break, or once an hour. If you don't have a lot of time you can do one step each day, but that is not ideal! It feels great to just get it done. Check off each part as you do it. When you are finished be sure to really think about how it feels to accomplish this task. That feeling can be your first reward and help you motivate yourself to not let this thing, whatever it is take so much of your well being from you.

Do something nice for yourself when you are done. Call a friend, post about your victory on your Facebook or the Cascade Living Facebook Page,  have a cup of coffee or tea, whatever will make you smile. Make sure you use this accomplishment to make you feel better, please do not beat yourself up about what else you have yet to do, or how long that job took. Getting one job done around the house that you a have been avoiding will free up your mind to find better ways of tackling that job in the future so it doesn't sneak up and ambush you anymore! (Or at least not anywhere near as often.) Motivate yourself with these good feelings.

For me, I get ambushed by my dishes all the time. I get so excited about the cooking that by the time I am done I am exhausted. It can be hard work just making sure everything that needs to get into the fridge gets there. So I will have to make a real effort to get unstuck and reestablish flow when doing my dishes. Sometimes I can just do them, sometimes I do need to make a list of each part and check it off. Day to day crises can and do get in the way of establishing flow. It can take a lot of tries to make a good habit around a job that you don't like to do. Be kind to yourself. If you know you always feel good when you are done it will be easier to start. Guilt is not a positive motivator and will not make things flow easily. You can be kind to yourself and still make better habits and choices.

Flow once established in one area really helps develop it in others. If you start small and build on your successes you will feel the difference. Things will get done and you won't have to even think about it, it will be just what happens. Start small and big things can happen.

Well, on that note, it may be time for me to tackle my dishes! I will write another post soon on how to get started when things are hard.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Thoughtfully,
Kristin