Awareness Or Flow?

[Siman]

Awareness and flow seem opposites to me. I do a lot of computerwork and i am still finding out which way is more effective. Sometimes i try to be very focussed, no music, trying to stay aware (or catching myself drifting away). At other times i put on relaxing music and i'll get into the flow and get a lot of work done (without resisting or overthinking). I like working in "flow" but it seems kind of low-conscious to me, time flies away without me being aware.

Is flow low-conscious? What are your experiences, which do you prefer and why?

[drelamore]

This low-high consciousness business is bothering a lot of people in this community, NOT for no reason of course...

But do you really care how conscious you are when you have to achieve a goal? I mean what are you trying to achieve with a particular task? enlightenment? getting shit done? what?

Do you think that someone who i enlightened doesn't drift away or as you say, go with the flow?

I hope you see that, what i am trying to say is that exercising awareness is a think on it's own, mixing it up in situations where it doesn't matter doesn't offer anything more than exhausting your brain for no reason.

That's how i feel currently about such questions, hope it helps :P

 

 

[Alen]

good question, it sure seems like flow is opposite to conscious, does it really have to be that way? I would also like to know.

but I think that when you are in "flow" you can only do things that you already know how they're done,
where as in "conscious" you can do new stuff and learn etc.
does that make any sense to you?  

Edited February 12, 2016 by Alen

[Ayla]

7 hours ago, Siman said:

Awareness and flow seem opposites to me. I do a lot of computer work and i am still finding out which way is more effective. Sometimes i try to be very focused, no music, trying to stay aware (or catching myself drifting away). At other times i put on relaxing music and i'll get into the flow and get a lot of work done (without resisting or overthinking). I like working in "flow" but it seems kind of low-conscious to me, time flies away without me being aware.

Is flow low-conscious? What are your experiences, which do you prefer and why?

There's a misunderstanding of terms/concepts here. 

What you call awareness in this context is actually focus/concentration. 

What you call "flow" is actually being present. 

Being aware means that you are flowing . There is no resistance, no push and no pull. There is no judgement and no preference in pure awareness. Hence, everything "flows" 

Mind will always try and make you believe that "flow" is low-consciousness, because it HATES being put to rest... it's like it is left without a job. So it's only way to get back to you, is to whisper to you that this cannot be right.. 

 

[Siman]

@drelamore Thanks for the feedback. You make me see that i still try to find the "universal best solution", while the best solution is different for every specific moment. I think you are right saying it depends on the goal, if it works it works! I like working in the flow (being productive) but i do think being aware, or practicing awareness is more important in the bigger picture. Have to prioritize  

@Alen Thanks. I really like your idea of the difference between the "know" (automated tasks) and the unkown (new tasks). 

@Ayla Thanks, you might be right. With awareness i mean the way Eckhart Tolle uses it. Like when i'm working i try to put in micro-pauses to notice my breath, or notice my mood changing and things like that. What i mean with flow is like Alen replied, more like doing automated stuff. Maybe i'm using the wrong terms. Doing automated tasks feels good (getting things done without much effort or resistence), but also kind of feels pretty unconscious to me.

[adrian284]

On 2/12/2016 at 2:41 PM, Ayla said:

There's a misunderstanding of terms/concepts here. 

What you call awareness in this context is actually focus/concentration. 

What you call "flow" is actually being present. 

Being aware means that you are flowing . There is no resistance, no push and no pull. There is no judgement and no preference in pure awareness. Hence, everything "flows" 

Mind will always try and make you believe that "flow" is low-consciousness, because it HATES being put to rest... it's like it is left without a job. So it's only way to get back to you, is to whisper to you that this cannot be right.. 

 

I agree. Flow is not mindlessly performing tasks that you have formed a habbit of doing; it is actually being highly present here and now (i.e. working without mind wandering or resistance) without willingly excercising effort. It's a very automatic process and you cannot think your way into it. 

So @Siman awareness and flow are not opposites. Flow is being fully engaged in the task that you are doing without much mind wandering. 

[adrian284]

I think the reason that flow is perceived to be low awareness is that the conscious mind needs to monitor thoughts to make sure it is really present for it to feel present. And if it does start monitoring, the flow would not be flow any more because you are half focussed on monitoring your state instead of fully being engaged in doing the work. It's paradoxical.

So, flow that naturally happens without you doing the monitoring of how present you are is higher awareness (and more productive) than flow that is interrupted by self-monitoring of awareness, but it is falsely observed to be lower awareness. 

Edited February 23, 2016 by adrian2