For a moment, set aside what you are doing…
Take an inhale.
Hold the peak.
Exhale.
Hold the base.
Do it again and feel each piece of the cycle.
Notice for every inhale, there is naturally an exhale. For every exhale, an inhale.
Another way to say this would be to stay there is a high and a low to everything.
An uplift and a downfall. As such, in life and business, there is a cycle flowing and falling.
This Flow-Fall Cycle is a natural law – we can fight it, or we can accept it and use it.
I favor the last option.
Now, let’s apply this concept to something trending in soul-centered life and business.
I’d like to make the case that the Flow State of the Flow-Fall Cycle is the uplift… the inhale.
After all, it’s that state where time and space seem to melt away and we amaze ourselves with how quickly tasks are completed, how much genius flows from us onto the page, how easy our books come together or how effortless impact and success just seems to pour out. One can see how living from this state of flow is addicting.
While there are ways to create the conditions for it to occur consistently, you can’t live there. It would be living the high 24/7; it’s unsustainable and inconsistent to nature’s way.
The downfall does come. There is the emptying out. The exhale… the Fall State.
Here’s the key so that downfall doesn’t demolish you: The downfall doesn’t mean something is wrong.
It doesn’t mean that somehow you have fallen out of favor with the universe, but that’s how people I’ve worked with react when they feel the shift.
They wonder, “what did I do wrong? How did I mess it up?” They spend their time fighting the Fall State and chasing Flow State, which ultimately prolongs the process and then becomes a self-determined fate.
You did nothing wrong. You messed nothing up. It was simply that you were riding a wave UP and now it’s time to ride it DOWN.
And here’s my kind truth: The Fall State is coming no matter what.
You can fall down. Not pleasant. I’ve done it.
Or… you can learn to RIDE down.
Knowing how to engage in the Flow State to make the most of it … and then knowing how to engage the Fall State as well.
The Fall State is an opportunity to recover. Regroup. Go deep. Re-ground.
The degree to which you master the Fall State is the degree to which you harness the Flow State.
If you can’t handle the Fall State, you will fear it. You will do everything you can to resist going into it –even subconsciously holding yourself back from full Flow. When you let Fall State mean you are failing, you’ll be living from one shallow breath to the next.
You will create mediocrity by kind of going for it, kind of not. Afraid to really commit because the Fall State freaks you out too much.
I do understand that fall state sounds scary. It can feel uncertain and permanent, but it’s not, and I’ve learned that the sooner you embrace it, the faster you move through it and the more it can teach you.
As certain as a sunrise, that flow is coming again. There is no inhale without an exhale.
Picture a bird soaring. It rides the updrafts and the downdrafts. Either way it’s relaxed and well. It’s a master of the air.
May it be so for you, too.
*and if you are finding yourself asking “how” to weave together the Flow and the Fall into your own success rhythm, please reach out. I’m committed to helping you take concepts and make them concrete and useful tools for your success.