Another Year Later: A Flow Genome Project Training Review

Listen to the Author read this blog here.

“It’s time to seed a R E V O L U T I O N” ~ These were the words at the top of the last batch email I received from Jamie Wheal & the Flow Genome Project Team discussing the launch of his upcoming book Recapture the Rapture on April 27th 2021.

R e v o l u t i o n: noun

1. 1. 1. 1. a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system
      2. an instance of revolving
      3. a sudden, radical or complete change

I noticed a welling sense, rising up, matching this word r e v o l u t i o n. A shift moving hand in hand with ALL of 2020. Something is changing…

#WTF are the words I recited many times throughout my experience of 2020. “I set intentions for CLARITY this year,” I’d say to Gretchen.

After several expletives and #WTF’s coming from her direction she’d say, “Well things are getting very clear. Wouldn’t you prefer it now rather than in 5, 10 or 20 years?”

Learning who people really are and where they truly stand seemed to be a lesson on repeat throughout 2020. Like seeing people masked up, gloved up in Costco pushing elders over to get their own toilet paper hoard.

Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, Politics, Trans Lives Matter, Vaccines, Asian Lives Matter on and on…

Where Do You Stand?

I’ve found that utilizing this tool from the Flow Genome Project can be very helpful when one is faced with so many questions of oneself.

Occam’s Razor, Pascal’s Wager, Bayesian Probability

In it’s simplest, when things have gone too meta and there are too many questions at hand in complex and dynamic situations, for me it boils down to this:

Occam’s Razor – Is it true? (whatever you’re thinking out, meddling on, talking about)

Pascal’s Wager – Do you believe in God? (up to you!)

Bayesian Probability – What is the next simplest step? (generally, this is, take a breath or one tiny action)

Becoming a Peak Performance Coach *with Distinction through the Flow Genome Project’s Coaching Certification Course in 2019 is definitely one of the feats I am most proud of. We took a deep dive on the science and mechanics of flow, group flow, how to prioritize habit stacking, building optimal Power Hour’s, timing Hedonic Calendar’s, breathwork, remaining accountable to our deepest heartfelt desires, digesting grief, releasing trauma and more.

Becoming fuller, whole-istic, humans.

But it’s not like the training stopped there after the week long intensive in the Redwoods above Santa Cruz, CA (You can read my post about the experience here).

Essentially when we are talking about “Flow” we are talking about a complete lifestyle shift, with much of the arduous efforts that a fitness or nutrition lifestyle shift would take. Perhaps even, a revolution of the mind and the way we think of and are conditioned to think of “life”.

#SHIFT #ANDBREATHE

One of my biggest take aways from these last several years of continuing to work amongst the FGP community is that if you pay attention and listen very closely this is not all about Jamie Wheal. There is a concerted efforted to ‘hand the baton’ round the circle much like a Quaker style meeting. He’s not “the” leader of “a” group. Everyone leads, everyone listens, turns are taken and everyone is welcome. Sure, Wheal is the guy who wrote some books, with an ability to describe complex situations delivering eloquence like there’s a wide array of references logged into his mind in the form of a current encyclopedia while weaving poignant personal references that can make one go… huh? How’d you do that?

Listening deeper into the inter workings of these live training courses and online gatherings one can feel a rising support system woven together like a web through every individual “in” the community (there’s no real “in”, the only in is, Are you living your practice of becoming?)

The people are the real stars of this show. The one’s who show up. From dreamers, to psychotherapists, to entrepreneurs, to brain coaches, to tech CEO’s, to writers, to voice coaches, to teachers, to acroyoga masters, to lighting technicians, to vice optimization coaches, to actors, to empaths, to yoga instructors, to principals, to Navy SEALS, to mom’s & dad’s and beyond… These humans have changed me, for the better with all of their love, support and challenging nudges.

H u m a n i t y I n t e r t w i n e d

Some of my favorite moments throughout these last years of showing up to monthly FGP community calls, and other in person trainings, have been watching these humans grow. Sometimes I am a part of this growth, sometimes I’m the one growing, and a lot of times I am the observer.

Growth Mindset

“In a growth mindset, people know that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work – brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment” (Dweck, 2015) via Renaissance

Remember,

S T I L L N E S S

is

an A c t i o n.

To stand amidst such a wonderful caliber of human ~ empathy, compassion, listening, voicing, supporting, revealing, challenging ~ a common thread run through us all ~ Grace to Grow.

Growth can be messy (we all fall down a lot), heartbreaking, and grief filled but these humans aren’t pushing me, pointing at me or along for a free ride. They are all every single one of them, In the arena.

That’s the price of admission…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

-Theodore Roosevelt, Paris, 1910

No matter the practice, no matter the route, each of us are a living artifact on the path of becoming, willing to share when boundaries are respected.

“Strong backs, soft fronts, wild hearts.” -Brene Brown

The Dreamer first taught me about forgiveness and then taught me how to wonder, widely and bring back those musings less concretely. “Perhaps” and “Consider” brushing strokes of ingenuity past my mind. Allowing me to feel into The Dreamer’s sensing.

The Brain Coach taught me about static, triggers, blocks, empathy in action, healing and boundaries, ultimately guiding me into a space of feeling and understanding within myself that has bred an ability to integrate polarizing senses and noticing’s.

The Mother taught me about safety. She held me, she listened to me, as I cried and fretted about my own ontological addiction to ‘myself’ and ‘my story’. She showed me silent boundaries, she kicked my ass, and then she lovingly helped me back up again. After the seventh fall, and eighth stand back up she said, “I’m proud of you.” And for the first time I felt every single essence of every single vowel, consonant, syllable, and truth in those words.

The Artist taught me about a life lived through dreams onto canvas. Pencils, paints, and VR techniques combined with music to again connect us into feeling flow in motion. He also taught me about apophenia and that it is best to be taken lightly.

The Entrepreneur showed me how to laugh and smile again. But not the kind where it’s masking my true thoughts or feelings to save face. The kind of smile that comes from the depth of beauty in letting your own soul shine through the pain. She showed me how to walk down there and allow this beauty to shine even brighter without shame while constantly breeding curiosity.

The Vice Optimization coach showed me mercy and tenderness for admitting I’d gotten blocked again by an old story. Unable to move forward through grief I’d already processed. He looked me in the eye, and said, “I’m sorry, I’ll never do it that way again.” And I believed him because I knew it was true.

The Breath Cave Bro’s taught me how to have fun with my practice! Throwing down gnarly f*** bomb’s and sh** bombs in their descriptions of training. From low to flow! Constantly feeling like I was riding a wave from down under I’d hear myself say, “Yeeeeewwwwww!”

The Tech CEO taught me one of my most important lessons within the first 10 seconds of meeting him. We stood, face to face, silent amidst Redwood trees. Thoughts rolled throughout my mind, “Does he think he knows me?” “Why isn’t he saying anything?” “What’s he looking at?” Come to realize he was sensing my essence, my vibe, the way he felt on the inside during our first interaction. And this is something I now remember to do with every new and old encounter thanks to him.

“Feeling is understanding.”

-Wim Hof

The Trickster taught me how to laugh at my own infallibility. That annihilating my flaws was no less tragic than just witnessing them. Shame disappears when we’re honest and we own what we already know.

The Drummer taught me about the intersection of Discipline and Surrender, how to be gracious when someone spills black coffee on your white shoes, and that “It’s not about you, this is all about them, it’s all about THEM.”

The Teacher taught me how to write, and listen, and share what I was experiencing in my own voice. He laughed and mused and played with his own journeys of becoming. On the outside he can seem very serious with his craft, but on the inside this man is a budding boy full of play, curiosity, integrity and courage. And I find myself wanting to spend more time with him.

The Father kept me in line and watched me lovingly every time I stepped out of line, or off the beat, or on his line. He taught me more than how to fish. He taught me where to go, how to sense through my self, how to build a fishing rod from scratch, and toss my lines in the best directions. I already knew how to fish, my other father taught me that, but this one taught me how, where, when, why, through, into, under, on top, within and without. But most of all, he taught me how to #StickTheLanding.

The group together, these beautiful humans, taught me how many hearts could syncopate and simultaneously beat at once, drumming together in the Redwoods, staying in tune, cohering on Zoom, letting our flaws and traumas intertwine with beauty and become miracles in the form of emails and letters and it’s so nice to see you’s.

If there’s one take away I could share from my interactions within and without these varying cast of characters it is this, there’s beauty in the dysregulation, our scars, those places we think need healing. For we are no more beautiful to carry on without them, as we are beautiful for learning how to carry on WITH them. For in the pain is where we can find a regulation, a syncopation, a connection, a beat. And it is this beat, held gently and tenderly by more than one that can become so much more than when it is undone.

I am not so sure about the words that are in Recapture the Rapture, so I can’t say whether it’s a good or impactful read yet. I have an inkling that many of these cast of character’s had a part in inspiring, impacting, or curating the thoughts and ideas that are delivered. What I can also say is that the tools presented throughout Flow Genome Project’s courses, online trainings and live trainings, WORK. But the key is this and it’s the way every Alcoholics Anonymous meeting ends holding hands in a circle, “Keep coming back. It works if you work it.”