Myth 1 – I am in flow

New Age Myths

Working with people on a daily basis, I come across a phenomenon that could be described as the wonderful new realizations about how the world works that arise in those who have recently awakened spiritually. I call these New Age myths. Although they contain a grain of esoteric truth, through careless use that truth can disappear altogether, only to be replaced by a strange new, preconceived understanding of the world.

Myth 1 – I am in flow

A glorified state in which life is easy and things get done without effort. Opportunities simply present themselves, and therefore I can trust life completely. I have now reached a higher state – flow. Everything that happens in flow is right.

This really is a wonderful state, so what exactly has been “lost in translation”?

This is a composite myth, meaning that it contains several ideas:

• the first feeling is the right one

• the absence of obstacles means that I am doing the right thing

• if my vibration is good, everything will work out

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What is missing from this picture? The most important thing that is missing is contact with the soul, or the connection with the Dreamer. The soul incarnates in order to manifest new potential or in other words – to learn. Something new can only be discovered by going into the unknown. But the unknown is full of both the pleasant and the unpleasant. In addition, if we want to train a capability, every form of training requires resistance against which that capability can be developed. To train our muscles, for example, we need dumbbells. Therefore, in order to realize our potential, the soul will always guide us towards difficulties.

Consequently, if I always want to be in flow and conclude from this that I am on the right path, the opposite is more likely to happen: I remain in my comfort zone, in the known, and avoid the “dumbbells” with which I could train new skills.

Now the mind immediately wants to grasp onto the opposite: does everything, then, always have to come through difficulties? Do we have to struggle all the time? If we begin forcing our will through or take friction as a sign that we are on the right path, we go astray in exactly the same way. Just as flow is not an indicator of the path with heart, neither is constantly being in difficulty.

So how should we use flow? We live in an inert world of forms, and therefore our perception tends to fix itself onto certain understandings, judgments and values. As a result, in new and unknown situations we use approaches that do not produce results. We get stuck in the state of “I am right”, and this is precisely where we need to bring forth the plasticity of perception – to become like water and flow into another perspective, see new possibilities and find new knowledge.

So flow is a skill/tool, not an indicator of what is right, nor a destination we need to reach.

Mythbuster Rein