My trigger, I’ve realized is being rushed. Feeling pressured. My triggers often involve pace. Yet surprisingly, pace as the portal to peace can be a balm to frayed nerves.
That is, the act of slowing down your pace. Until you reach a point where time doesn’t exist. You’ve forgotten time. You’re in a field of play. Infinite Recess. As if you have all the time in the world. Someone who can bend time.
This state is synonymous with flow state. It’s a magical time when you lose track of all time. You feel alive. In fact, to be alive, to stay alive, is to remember this incredible state of expansion: time expansion, heart expansion, creative expansion. A state anyone can reach if they just dare to slow down their pace. It’s free. You feel free. Your ideas flow free.
I often reach this state in the early mornings when I write, but it can be anywhere. I can be in a busy cafe listening to music with either my laptop or my notebook. Or in complete solitude at home with my headphones on. It comes when I don’t feel rushed. When I slow down my pace. My heart rate slows down, and I bet, if I were to measure my HRV over time, more flow states that add up will increase that number, translating to better fitness and even longevity.
“Steven Kotler explains the neurochemical changes during flow states that strengthen motivation, creativity and learning. ‘The brain produces a giant cascade of neurochemistry. You get norepinephrine, dopamine, anandamide, serotonin and endorphins.'”
Anandamide is also known as the “bliss molecule.”
In Sanskrit, ‘Ananda’ translates to bliss or happiness. Exercise-induced flow-states also call up these bliss molecules, along with the other feel-good neurotransmitters mentioned above.
In fact, just “two minutes of intense exercise” can “increase your production of anandamide and improve the sensitivity of its receptors.” Wow! No wonder why I now crave working out. This also involves pace; here, you’re increasing the pace to induce bliss.
When I’m writing or walking, I tend to prefer to slow down my pace. I feel almost high, an euphoria when I slow walk or slow write. There are times when I feel bliss (and try to practice equanimity; not craving it, ) when doing Vipassana meditation, focusing on just one small part of the body, like my left ear.
Recently, since August 7, I have been meditating daily for at least 30 minutes with a friend, followed by 60 minutes of writing. We have yet to break the chain. She calls or texts me and we agree on a time to do it at the same time or we do it asynchronously on our own. But we’re accountable to each other because we text that we did it.
It’s crazy to think, but you have the ability to control your own bliss states, in some way. Not always, but it shows up when you work out. Which is probably why I now crave working out. When I go without a week, I start to feel down.
I think had I known a list of naturally-induced and mostly-free ways of increasing internal bliss to signal safety in my nervous system, I would had been a happier person.
Exercise, working out, was something I associated with dread as a teenager in high school. I was that kid that snuck away to cut P.E., ending up behind the hand ball courts sneaking a smoke. Then when I was in my 20s, in my only-black-wearing Goth/New Wave days, I joined a 24 hour fitness because a friend encouraged me, but after ten minutes of the treadmill wearing Doc Martens, I’d go outside to chain smoke Marlboro 100s against the front wall facing the parking lot.
Back then, I associated exercise with athletes and people obsessed with vanity. I was reluctant to be any part of it.
Now in my early 50s, I wish I had known that exercise can certainly make you look better, but more importantly, it increases bliss, makes you FEEL SO DAMN GOOD!
Speaking of exercise, I just returned from the gym. It feels amazing to close that loop, to press DONE on each workout. Leg press: DONE! Leg extension: DONE! Plank (held up to 1:44 today!): DONE!
I have to say, ever since I switched from the gym app to this Caliber app (so far, using the free mode), I’ve been noticing my muscle mass increasing and visceral fat decreasing. Now, it’s slow, ever since reaching menopause, I’ve been noticing that it’s harder to lose fat. But it’s making a visible difference.
My plan is to pace myself, embrace the right pace — fast or slow — and trust that this might just be the portal to peace.
A place of bliss.
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