[00:00:14] Kev: Alright, welcome back and Cam again, thank you for letting me interview. We are coming to the second part of, the book, the second category. Moving into steady. . There anything you would want to say to get the ball rolling on steady?
[00:00:35] Cameron: This section was really important for people wanting to find flow within a particular event. Whereas part one ready is around that self-leadership that really, that philosophical approach, study is still the second part of a flow mindset and it's around [00:01:00] how do we continue ready in real time?
[00:01:07] How do we, before an event, how do we. Calm the contents of our consciousness. How do we stay on track? How do we stay steady in order to allow flow when there might be some turbulence, interference, distraction and conflict ensuing before the days, hours, minutes, seconds before we actually go into that action.
[00:01:30] So that's the premise of this part of the book.
[00:01:34] Kev: Okay, so to summarize. The ready is more to zoom out and relate to flow as a whole. And then now we have built a relationship and we've built a self-leadership framework or an idea for ourselves, and now we are moving into preparing to actualize [00:02:00] before we do something. Is that fair to say or? Did I miss something there?
[00:02:07] Cameron: Yeah. Yeah. And this stage is really before we move into self-actualize, which is really that flow component. How do we sustain presence? How do we sustain, internal alignment when there's lots of distraction or potential conflict
[00:02:31] Kev: Hmm. Some moments before.
[00:02:34] Cameron: moments before? Yeah. Yeah, it covers, I guess, sort of classical self-regulatory skills and contains content around our self-regulation, but in a way that integrates flow into that process. So perfect for looking at preparations [00:03:00] before an important event.
[00:03:03] Kev: How does it relate to everyday things like imagine. The Daily Motions of life, does it apply there too or is it the big events?
[00:03:18] Cameron: It applies to everything we do really in the sense that if we imagine. We've got up in the morning, we've put on our flow mindset. We're here to learn. We're here for a rich quality of experience. I want to be in my optimal best today. That's my priority. Awesome. I'm ready. And then suddenly we're driving and there's noise in the back from the kids or the people in the car, and then suddenly we hit a red light.
[00:03:51] And we look at the clock, and the clock tells us that we're late and then our mind goes to, well, because I'm late, [00:04:00] that means something else is gonna happen. So we speed through. We suddenly see a flash from a camera, speeding camera on the side of the road, and then we hit another red light and suddenly the contents of our consciousness whilst we were ready.
[00:04:20] Whilst we had created the signpost to help ourselves towards flow, there's been all this distraction and conflict that's come up, and equally, we might be in a conversation and arrive at the party or at the dinner table or at the counter in a place of ready. And then suddenly they do a look or they do a sigh or they say something and we suddenly get triggered.
[00:04:44] And there's all these emotions and thoughts. And internal conflict as well as potential external conflicts, which is distracting and derails us from, from being in flow. So how do we stay steady amongst [00:05:00] that distraction, is really the essence of, of this part, which applies absolutely to everyday life and living.
[00:05:09] If we're wanting to be in flow or, have flow as that, that lifestyle approach, that philosophical lifestyle approach. But it also applies or becomes really important for people such as athletes or presenters or people who have moments in which they want to be at their best. And we magnify those preparations to really get the best out of them.
[00:05:33] Kev: Hmm. This connects really well to something you wrote in the book There. You say, if you're not managing the contents of your consciousness, then your thoughts, emotions, and sensations will manage you. It's pretty powerful. I feel. It's relating to what you're starting to lay out for us here.
[00:05:55] Cameron: Hmm. It is. Powerful. And I also [00:06:00] believe it to be very true in the sense that our awareness is really a bit like a flashlight or a lens of a camera, if you like, and if we are not actively directing that camera or flashlight to help us see, gather information, which the changes, what we see perceive.
[00:06:24] Believe, feel all the rest of it interpret life before us, then it's gonna get filled with random stuff, which is then gonna have the knock on effect of affecting our internal workings, our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions and so forth. And, and so there's, there's a real importance to when we stay steady.
[00:06:50] To look at, well, what's happening in my consciousness, IE awareness, right? I'm using consciousness as a term to, to [00:07:00] talk about our awareness of any given moment. Not necessarily a connection, a spiritual connection to a higher consciousness, but rather a psychological interpretation of, the awareness at the present moment and.
[00:07:15] An extreme example is working with A-A-C-E-O of a company. Not long ago when COVID pandemic hit, there's all this external conflict, external distraction from everyday business. Suddenly thrusted upon his shoulders was should I cut staff? Do I move offices?
[00:07:40] How do we protect the business? You know, all this sort of reaction that happens and, and in those situations we can, and I'm sure whilst people may not have been in that CEO position, we can all relate to when something. [00:08:00] External comes in our way and knocks us off the track or makes us think twice or suddenly our brain then goes into overdrive to think about the many possible solutions and what do I need to do here?
[00:08:11] And we get lost in a bit of a rabbit warren of thoughts. And often there's, there's good, logical arguments on both sides of the coin. And, and if we are not holding our consciousness, if we're not owning it. Then we could be making decisions based on what the loudest fear is in our mind. You know, for example of this situation with a CEO, one of the things that was really, really helpful for him was to sit with his thoughts, understand where they were coming from.
[00:08:47] So we, we put this sort of imaginary board of directors in his head and there was the director of. Panic, director of panic, and there was a director of [00:09:00] safety. There was a director of hr, there was a director of being an entrepreneur, and there were all these voices in his head that he felt he was responsible for and they all saying different things and.
[00:09:16] It was a pretty noisy, loud room in his head when we were externalizing what was happening onto a board so he could get clarity. And when we, when we did do that, I asked him, well, where's the chairman of the board? And he kind of got confused and was thinking it was. Mr. Panic at that time, and I said, well, what would happen if you were to take control of and be the chairman of this board?
[00:09:43] Those voices can still exist, but you can chair this meeting. And suddenly, uh, his whole perspective of everything that was happening in his mind changed. He could get perspective on all of it. He could get ownership over the decision. He could get back in contact [00:10:00] with his intuition as opposed to these.
[00:10:03] Many narratives and many voices going on inside his head. And that's an example where he was reacting to all these thoughts and potential solutions that he thought he should be doing and thinking of without stopping to, first of all, become grounded, center ourselves and understand are we just reacting to.
[00:10:27] Random thoughts coming into our mind, into our awareness, or is there a foundation there that we've proactively created an optimal level of ourselves? And then using those narratives and information as good feedback and as we would information from many consultants, you know, and that completely changed his decision making on how to deal with this situation.
[00:10:51] As well as completely changing his experience of that event and going from this highly stressful, [00:11:00] panicky nightmare to actually a very interesting challenge that was very complex, that was gonna test his leadership and his skills as a CEO.
[00:11:15] Kev: Wow. So where, what, what did it do for him to go through this exercise to make this transformation?
[00:11:34] Cameron: It helped him to be empowered first and foremost, but also to. Really embody all the decisions he was making. And he can now look back and, whether he, in hindsight made the right or wrong decision, he can go back and be like, at the time I was fully on track, I was ready, I was steady, and I was very [00:12:00] conscious and, you know, I knew exactly what I was doing.
[00:12:02] And, and he doesn't need to look back with any regrets and he can move forwards with his decisions. Knowing that it was most aligned with who he was and where he wanted to take the company and all the rest of it. So he was in alignment and he was moving forwards with that cohesion. , Which for a lot of us, there's, I guess there's a bit of, not always regret, but we look back at.
[00:12:33] Days and weeks and months and years and go, wow, I was just so stressed out then. Or, , was I acting outta fear, outta shame, or was I hiding or was I, and, we can look back at those moments and wish we could perhaps do it differently , or do it again. And, and that completely gets rid of all of that.
[00:12:54] Which is a really nice place to move forwards with and, and really important when we want to find [00:13:00] flow because in those moments we are in, we have that internal alignment and that beckons flow. To, to appear. And if, we're not in that place, we're otherwise fractured, you know, we're moving from that neck.
[00:13:16] Entropy to entropy. We're moving to chaos in the consciousness. You know, there's a, I guess a more metaphysical philosophical theory that our mind is either moving in the direction of chaos or moving in the direction of cohesion, AK entropy and leg entropy, and so it allows us to. To stay steady in that more cohesive Negan tropic place and allow, allow flow to occur.
[00:13:50] Kev: Define in Tropic and Negan tropic. For people that might not be familiar with these terminologies.[00:14:00]
[00:14:00] Cameron: So it's really a term coined by. Metaphysics and used by Chick sent Mihai and other psychological philosophers to talk about how information within our consciousness may be behaving. And entropy is this idea of chaos, things moving in random, disparate ways, and entropy is the opposite. Things moving towards one end in harmony, in alignment.
[00:14:31] And the theory is that when. The contents of our consciousness is aligned moving towards one end, which is why goals are so important 'cause it COHEs our resources and attention towards one end. When we have that internal alignment, focus and harmony then flows possible. But if our mind is reacting to the, the [00:15:00] disparate.
[00:15:02] Chaos that's happening within it, we're continuously gonna be conflicted, distracted, and flow doesn't become possible.
[00:15:12] Kev: Hmm, when you were developing the study piece. made you realize it wasn't enough to just get your mind in the right place?
[00:15:27] Cameron: I think many experiences. I mean, my own personal experience in sport would be I would, I would get my I'D become ready, put on my flame mindset, prioritize it. And then it'd be the littlest things is suddenly watching a player walk on court with a brand new bag. And then I'd be like, oh, he's got the brand new equipment.
[00:15:50] He must be good. And as stupid, as stupid as it sounds, that then triggers a fear of competence and [00:16:00] thoughts and, and all the rest of it. And and then playing about with music, I'd be in a good space and then I'd play music that. Got me pumped, right? I'd listen to the Rocky soundtrack and, I'd find I'd get too pumped right before the event and actually get too aroused.
[00:16:20] And whilst I thought I was doing the right thing, my preparations weren't optimal. They weren't helping me peak. And, so all this varying activity that whilst I might have made a conscious decision to be ready. And changed my approach towards the challenge. There was all this distraction, even of my own making, such as the music I was listening to, and then working with clients, it becomes ever more obvious because I can see that they, they have the right approach because we've worked on it.
[00:16:51] Or for some people. There's this one Olympic, um, athlete I'm thinking of where they were just like so aligned with being ready, [00:17:00] like, I was learning of them and, and it, they were just philosophically completely in the right place. But distractions would pop up, be it someone they fancied, be it, a, a media camera that was there, whatever it was, they couldn't stay in that place.
[00:17:19] The importance, the need to keep that steadiness, keep hold of the reins of our consciousness towards where we want to heed became, very, very obvious. And then in trying to communicate how to find flow, it became very obvious that it would be an important part for many people.
[00:17:46] Kev: Tell us more about what changed for this specific athlete then if,
[00:17:55] Cameron: They were able to be more consistent, so whereas their performances [00:18:00] would be high and then low and high, and then low, and when the external variables were in the right place. Which was, you know, down to luck. They had the right philosophical approach and it all clicked. But when something wasn't quite right, be it equipment, be it people around them, be it whatever it was, their performances and their ability to find flow would suddenly.
[00:18:27] Falter. So there was this sort of up and down rollercoaster ride of, of performances and experiences. And then when they inserted these preparations to, to sustain that space until they were paddling, and then they could let go and just allow flow, suddenly their performances. Were consistently high and their experiences were consistently satisfying and their ability to find flow felt more, more attainable, more real, more consistent, more frequent.[00:19:00]
[00:19:01] Kev: Yeah. For most of our lives, we don't manage our consciousness. We just react. When does someone wake up to the fact that they actually have a choice here? That they have the ability to, that. Does it need a trigger or do we need some sort of awareness that needs to sleep in?
[00:19:37] Cameron: Yeah, it's a good question. Ultimately, I believe we're experiential beings and for there to be wisdom, not just knowledge, right? So for there to be information that isn't just a logical thread that makes sense, but rather a lived. Embodied pattern of thinking or behavior that [00:20:00] we've ex that comes from experiencing something and the embodied mind, the psyche absorbing it, and then, using it becomes part of us, becomes part of our, our wisdom of the sum of our lived experience on this planet are inner intelligence, if you like.
[00:20:23] Often for people need that experiential win or that experience for something either bad to happen for then for us to go, hang on, I don't want that. How do I change that? Or for something great to happen in which we have managed our preparations, and then it's clearly worked, and then they're like, oh, wow, that was great. So I think, you know, it depends on how people create that experience, and as to when that, when we allow that, that penny to [00:21:00] drop, you know, but certainly we can curate it. We don't need to, have a huge aha moment. We can be very aware that, you know, for example, if I.
[00:21:13] I mean, we could, there's 1,000,001 examples we can use, but if I go and have a cold shower right now, I can just walk in and my experience is probably gonna be, Ooh, ooh, tight, hold it. But if I take 10 deep breaths, find a, a level of internal harmony where I can be at ease with oncoming friction and oncoming cold and oncoming conflict, then I'm gonna have a richer experience.
[00:21:39] Right. And my performance per se is probably gonna be less gasping. So we can sort of create experiences such as that, you know, we can go shoot three throws on the basketball, we can go throw darts at the board or take tea bags and throw them into coffee cups to create any challenge for ourselves.
[00:21:58] And [00:22:00] when we practice integrating flow into the preparations, we can see very quickly that the experience. It's better, the performance is better and, the aha moment of, ah, okay, I do have a choice here. I can manage my consciousness, you know, is really, is really becomes really, really interesting.
[00:22:20] Kev: What's happening when someone's consciousness is not managed by them, but the nervous system is taking over.
[00:22:34] Cameron: We become very sensitive to the outside world. Yeah. And. Part of that sympathetic activation is our, our senses can get heightened. And so we become very sensitive to all the distractions and we, I guess, stop focusing on what our intention is or where we want to go and, and what we want to be doing, and when that suddenly, [00:23:00] when you know, that equals more uncertainty, more chaos externally, and as a result.
[00:23:07] Our thinking brain, our explicit cognition takes the reins thinking, oh, I need to solve, I need to feel more in control here. I need to feel safer. And we start to overthink and, and then our left amygdala will start to fire. And, and, and sympathetic service, nervous systems, spikes even more. And, and all that beautiful cortico muscular coherence that we have in flow, all that beautiful harmony and that, um.
[00:23:37] Parasympathetic modulation of our sympathetic nervous system where our sort of psyche and relaxed system manages the arousal to a really helpful, helpful level disappears. And in that sense, our sort of biology is reacting. And just as we would a stress response and we go into a sort of a mild or, or [00:24:00] extreme, depending on the situation, sort of fight, flight, freeze, fa or flop responses where we can also not feel in control of our physiology as our heart starts to beat and we start to sweat and start to become twitchy or tight or strained.
[00:24:16] And, um. And then we're, you know, we're deep in the red. So, obviously I think we talked a little bit earlier around this idea of embodied cognition where the mind and and body are inseparable and there's a physiological consequence to the psychology.
[00:24:35] Kev: Yeah, you mentioned flight, fight, freeze. Those are the three that I hear most often. What goes more?
[00:24:45] Cameron: Fight, flight, freeze, fawn and flop.
[00:24:48] Kev: FA and Flop. Flop. I have never heard fa, I just recently heard about, take us through
[00:24:54] Cameron: FA is sort of people pleasing. We go into that sort of appeasement, that [00:25:00] placating that, um, I'm, you know, I'm not the situation or you are more worthy than me. And, and we, distance ourself. We avoid and run away by placating. And then that flop is where we feel like we might lose control of the.
[00:25:16] Of the body, um, such as we just feel like fatigued all of a sudden. Or in a physical sport or not even a physical sport. You go up to someone you fancy and suddenly your legs feel all loose and wobbly and, and you just feel like your, your body goes into this sort of flop. And psychologically we go into a bit of a
[00:25:36] downward spiral.
[00:25:38] Kev: Hmm. So people pleasing might be a, uh, a part of this response that we have when we are faced with something that's threatening is, is that fair to say?
[00:25:53] Cameron: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:55] Kev: Interesting. [00:26:00] In the book you write that the mind will naturally project to future events, most often self-determining suboptimal experiences. Why do our minds do this?
[00:26:17] Cameron: Because we want to feel in control. We want to. Uh, you know, that inner workings of generative development in the sense that we want to survive, we want to become better beings so we can better survive. We want to advance, innate in all of us. We want to, at some stage be better, not necessarily from a moral
[00:26:40] standpoint or compass, but more from a, an evolutionary one. And so in order to do that, we need and want to feel in control of the situation so we can better act, better, think better, navigate the situation better, meet our agendas, and meet our needs. And so the [00:27:00] mind, is naturally projecting.
[00:27:02] Predicting and every time we, we predict the future to understand how to act. In the present, we project and every time we project, we create an experience around that projection. And more often than not, those projections are not ones of flow or optimal functioning. They're ones of tightness, fear, nerves or, you know, you just think about.
[00:27:28] An upcoming event that's very important to you and just reflect on what that experience around that projection actually is. And so it is a very natural, very normal way of operating. You know, our biology is hardwired to predict and, often we, we overthink it by taking into account the nerves that we might feel that speeds up the number of times we're gonna predict and project.
[00:27:57] Then transfers that feeling [00:28:00] into the future event. And so we then project a nervous experience or project a self-conscious experience or whatever it is. So it's a very natural mode , but it's one that, unfortunately works against us most of the time because of our overactive mind. You know, our mind is continuously trying to.
[00:28:25] Get ahead. But in taking the reins, it overthinks overcomplicates the situation, and as I said, brings in inferred feelings that don't need to be in the future, into the situation.
[00:28:41] Kev: It feels to me that. Part of this sometimes happens automatic. Um, some projections are a reactive response to whatever is going on in life. Well, what do we do with this?
[00:28:59] Cameron: [00:29:00] We use it to our advantage. I mean, if we are just catching a ball, for example, our mind's gonna be predicting. You know, the trajectory of the ball is gonna be predicting the environmental variables in order to know where to place our hands and where to catch the ball. So there's lots and lots of predictions that's happening to bring a coffee cup up to our mouth.
[00:29:23] We are predicting, lots of predictions in that process. So there's all these predictions that are happening all the time. You know, our brain is just like it. It would be impossible to not do that. However, what we can do is use it to our advantage, use it as an asset and use it to insert flow and use it to train our mind and body to feel in flow, to think and flow, to have that future experience of flow, to have that future projection flow.
[00:29:55] So then when we get to those experiences as we would bringing a [00:30:00] cup of coffee to our mouth, we do it effortlessly and seamlessly. When we project how to catch those car keys that are suddenly throwed to us across the room, there's often not time to think about not catching them. There's just like, oh, and we've caught it, but our mind will instantly project to where it might be, and then we deliver that action and similarly bringing the coffee cup, I might be in such a relaxed, secure state.
[00:30:31] That bringing this coffee cup or cup of coconut water up to my mouth is just easy and And there's effortlessness. There's faultlessness there. But if suddenly I'm sitting across someone who I'm nervous about or, I have an internal conflict and I'm sure we've all been there trying to drink a hot cup and we're feeling nervous and we're trying to study the cup to not spill it and have a drink, suddenly it all becomes difficult and [00:31:00] clunky and horrible.
[00:31:00] So that premise, we can, we already do, but it's just consciously utilizing that predictive processing to our advantage.
[00:31:14] Kev: If you were to do a thought experiment, because we've talked about okay, creating an optimal. Experience and the way that we're projecting, and we've also talked about what, what kind of happens when it goes wrong. Let's make a thought experiment out of okay, things go wrong. What's going on there and what do we actually do to apply steady to this?
[00:31:46] Cameron: We proactively, what I call build a flow blueprint. So we take the time out to visualize a feature event in flow. And [00:32:00] we can build an in-depth flow blueprint. And depending on the importance or the, the degree of negativity of those projections, we can do a deep dive into this and do a deep meditations, almost self hypnotic intervention and have it very experiential, very sensational.
[00:32:22] So for example, with athletes like. Olympian skiers that I've worked with, we've had them in their hotel room with their equipment, with their skis on, with all their gear on, with a fan in their face to mimic the wind squatting as if they're skiing, but visualizing to make it feel super real and super immersive, and so that they can really build that blueprint of them in flow.
[00:32:54] Before they actually do that race. So then when they get to the race, the brain goes, oh yeah, I, I know what to do here. I've done this [00:33:00] already.
[00:33:00] Kev: Hmm.
[00:33:01] Cameron: And then leading up to the race, the emotional turbulence isn't as as much because there's that seed feeling of, I've got this, I'm gonna react and flow. No problem.
[00:33:13] So there's less distraction, less conflict leading up to the race. And then what we do with that blueprint is we take a snapshot of it. An image, two second movie, something short, bright, that really signifies that whole blueprint. And then every time the mind projects, which it will hundreds of times before an important event, we insert the snapshot.
[00:33:34] Insert the snapshot into our mind, bring it front and center, remind our neurology how to feel, how to be and associate this idea and feeling of being in flow. With that feature event. And the more we create those associations, the more it becomes a, a likely scenario to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. So in creating those [00:34:00] flow blueprints, we can do that for, um, walking into work every day.
[00:34:05] We can do that for important meetings. We can do that for a conversation, we can do it for a sporting event or whatever it is. You know, we, we have the opportunity. To manage that process, steady our minds create content within our consciousness that will lead us towards flow, or we can choose to what I call be experientially negligent, which is to ignore our experience, right?
[00:34:35] Instead of being experientially intelligent and competent, and being aware that our experience is super powerful. We can, um, you know, we have a choice to either pick up that, use that intelligence to our advantage or, or be negligence and, and play the lottery and see, and see what, uh, what [00:35:00] experiential rollercoaster, awaits.
[00:35:04] Kev: Yeah. Okay. So the blueprint and the exercises in this scenarios mentioned these are very much, if you have time in advance and you have a very um. Specific scenario that kind of goes the way, right? Let's imagine the example that you set before, okay, you're at your tennis match and now this person comes in with a new bag and it was something that you didn't project that didn't really fit the blueprint.
[00:35:38] Um, now your brain takes over. You're starting to think of all these negative thoughts and you're starting to project again, the non flow mindset specific. So what do we do there? How do we intervene? How do we get out of there and come back to it?
[00:35:57] Cameron: The quickest one is to insert the snapshot. [00:36:00] You know, remind ourselves why we're here and all the feelings that we're about to feel when we in that scenario, step on the court and play tennis. And that might bring us back, you know, alternatively we can, with trial and error, we can create rituals that it might be a sequence of music, it might be a, a thought, you know, I often have one of
[00:36:25] laughing with my children, laughing with my children puts me in such a good place of, the reason why I do things, the the feeling that I want to generate inside myself. So if I, if my consciousness is being hijacked, I can just think of a moment where I'm just giggling with them or they're doing something silly and that then brings my heart rate to a place I want.
[00:36:48] It brings my mind to a place I wants it, and then I can. In, you know, reengage with what, what's happening. And, you know, there's many, many tools that I lay out in the book. And [00:37:00] from resetting our psychophysiology to managing our thoughts, to choosing feelings, to trigger an engineer, to, lots of ways to power up our presence and use our senses to our advantage so we can.
[00:37:21] Get out of that thinking brain. That's often been the cause of us being hijacked and back into a more sensory or experiential experience, so it really, depends on what the activity is and, the state that we want to put ourselves in prior. You know, if I'm hours before an important event, I'm gonna want to be super relaxed.
[00:37:45] But if I'm minutes before an important event, I'm gonna want to be somewhat aroused and excited and fired up, ? So we might use different tools to create different feelings and thoughts [00:38:00] and points of focus.
[00:38:06] Kev: Yeah, there's, there's something that you said that really sparked my interest that I think would be good to leave the listener with. Um. The deliverance to catch yourself in that moment. When things are going to insert the emotions at the right place. So there's some sort of essence of self knowledge that you're developing as you're going through.
[00:38:35] Steady in a way, right? You're creating something deliberately to project, but also you're starting to understand what might go wrong for you and how to change your experience of becoming more intelligent in the moment.
[00:38:52] Cameron: Yeah, absolutely. And well put, and there's an underlying theme there. Within this phase of the book and the whole book as [00:39:00] a whole of this idea of becoming more experientially intelligent and to sum up this episode that this study is, gives us the practical tools and the rituals for us to actually apply that experiential intelligence into experiential competence.
[00:39:20]
[00:00:35] Cameron: This section was really important for people wanting to find flow within a particular event. Whereas part one ready is around that self-leadership that really, that philosophical approach, study is still the second part of a flow mindset and it's around [00:01:00] how do we continue ready in real time?
[00:01:07] How do we, before an event, how do we. Calm the contents of our consciousness. How do we stay on track? How do we stay steady in order to allow flow when there might be some turbulence, interference, distraction and conflict ensuing before the days, hours, minutes, seconds before we actually go into that action.
[00:01:30] So that's the premise of this part of the book.
[00:01:34] Kev: Okay, so to summarize. The ready is more to zoom out and relate to flow as a whole. And then now we have built a relationship and we've built a self-leadership framework or an idea for ourselves, and now we are moving into preparing to actualize [00:02:00] before we do something. Is that fair to say or? Did I miss something there?
[00:02:07] Cameron: Yeah. Yeah. And this stage is really before we move into self-actualize, which is really that flow component. How do we sustain presence? How do we sustain, internal alignment when there's lots of distraction or potential conflict
[00:02:31] Kev: Hmm. Some moments before.
[00:02:34] Cameron: moments before? Yeah. Yeah, it covers, I guess, sort of classical self-regulatory skills and contains content around our self-regulation, but in a way that integrates flow into that process. So perfect for looking at preparations [00:03:00] before an important event.
[00:03:03] Kev: How does it relate to everyday things like imagine. The Daily Motions of life, does it apply there too or is it the big events?
[00:03:18] Cameron: It applies to everything we do really in the sense that if we imagine. We've got up in the morning, we've put on our flow mindset. We're here to learn. We're here for a rich quality of experience. I want to be in my optimal best today. That's my priority. Awesome. I'm ready. And then suddenly we're driving and there's noise in the back from the kids or the people in the car, and then suddenly we hit a red light.
[00:03:51] And we look at the clock, and the clock tells us that we're late and then our mind goes to, well, because I'm late, [00:04:00] that means something else is gonna happen. So we speed through. We suddenly see a flash from a camera, speeding camera on the side of the road, and then we hit another red light and suddenly the contents of our consciousness whilst we were ready.
[00:04:20] Whilst we had created the signpost to help ourselves towards flow, there's been all this distraction and conflict that's come up, and equally, we might be in a conversation and arrive at the party or at the dinner table or at the counter in a place of ready. And then suddenly they do a look or they do a sigh or they say something and we suddenly get triggered.
[00:04:44] And there's all these emotions and thoughts. And internal conflict as well as potential external conflicts, which is distracting and derails us from, from being in flow. So how do we stay steady amongst [00:05:00] that distraction, is really the essence of, of this part, which applies absolutely to everyday life and living.
[00:05:09] If we're wanting to be in flow or, have flow as that, that lifestyle approach, that philosophical lifestyle approach. But it also applies or becomes really important for people such as athletes or presenters or people who have moments in which they want to be at their best. And we magnify those preparations to really get the best out of them.
[00:05:33] Kev: Hmm. This connects really well to something you wrote in the book There. You say, if you're not managing the contents of your consciousness, then your thoughts, emotions, and sensations will manage you. It's pretty powerful. I feel. It's relating to what you're starting to lay out for us here.
[00:05:55] Cameron: Hmm. It is. Powerful. And I also [00:06:00] believe it to be very true in the sense that our awareness is really a bit like a flashlight or a lens of a camera, if you like, and if we are not actively directing that camera or flashlight to help us see, gather information, which the changes, what we see perceive.
[00:06:24] Believe, feel all the rest of it interpret life before us, then it's gonna get filled with random stuff, which is then gonna have the knock on effect of affecting our internal workings, our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions and so forth. And, and so there's, there's a real importance to when we stay steady.
[00:06:50] To look at, well, what's happening in my consciousness, IE awareness, right? I'm using consciousness as a term to, to [00:07:00] talk about our awareness of any given moment. Not necessarily a connection, a spiritual connection to a higher consciousness, but rather a psychological interpretation of, the awareness at the present moment and.
[00:07:15] An extreme example is working with A-A-C-E-O of a company. Not long ago when COVID pandemic hit, there's all this external conflict, external distraction from everyday business. Suddenly thrusted upon his shoulders was should I cut staff? Do I move offices?
[00:07:40] How do we protect the business? You know, all this sort of reaction that happens and, and in those situations we can, and I'm sure whilst people may not have been in that CEO position, we can all relate to when something. [00:08:00] External comes in our way and knocks us off the track or makes us think twice or suddenly our brain then goes into overdrive to think about the many possible solutions and what do I need to do here?
[00:08:11] And we get lost in a bit of a rabbit warren of thoughts. And often there's, there's good, logical arguments on both sides of the coin. And, and if we are not holding our consciousness, if we're not owning it. Then we could be making decisions based on what the loudest fear is in our mind. You know, for example of this situation with a CEO, one of the things that was really, really helpful for him was to sit with his thoughts, understand where they were coming from.
[00:08:47] So we, we put this sort of imaginary board of directors in his head and there was the director of. Panic, director of panic, and there was a director of [00:09:00] safety. There was a director of hr, there was a director of being an entrepreneur, and there were all these voices in his head that he felt he was responsible for and they all saying different things and.
[00:09:16] It was a pretty noisy, loud room in his head when we were externalizing what was happening onto a board so he could get clarity. And when we, when we did do that, I asked him, well, where's the chairman of the board? And he kind of got confused and was thinking it was. Mr. Panic at that time, and I said, well, what would happen if you were to take control of and be the chairman of this board?
[00:09:43] Those voices can still exist, but you can chair this meeting. And suddenly, uh, his whole perspective of everything that was happening in his mind changed. He could get perspective on all of it. He could get ownership over the decision. He could get back in contact [00:10:00] with his intuition as opposed to these.
[00:10:03] Many narratives and many voices going on inside his head. And that's an example where he was reacting to all these thoughts and potential solutions that he thought he should be doing and thinking of without stopping to, first of all, become grounded, center ourselves and understand are we just reacting to.
[00:10:27] Random thoughts coming into our mind, into our awareness, or is there a foundation there that we've proactively created an optimal level of ourselves? And then using those narratives and information as good feedback and as we would information from many consultants, you know, and that completely changed his decision making on how to deal with this situation.
[00:10:51] As well as completely changing his experience of that event and going from this highly stressful, [00:11:00] panicky nightmare to actually a very interesting challenge that was very complex, that was gonna test his leadership and his skills as a CEO.
[00:11:15] Kev: Wow. So where, what, what did it do for him to go through this exercise to make this transformation?
[00:11:34] Cameron: It helped him to be empowered first and foremost, but also to. Really embody all the decisions he was making. And he can now look back and, whether he, in hindsight made the right or wrong decision, he can go back and be like, at the time I was fully on track, I was ready, I was steady, and I was very [00:12:00] conscious and, you know, I knew exactly what I was doing.
[00:12:02] And, and he doesn't need to look back with any regrets and he can move forwards with his decisions. Knowing that it was most aligned with who he was and where he wanted to take the company and all the rest of it. So he was in alignment and he was moving forwards with that cohesion. , Which for a lot of us, there's, I guess there's a bit of, not always regret, but we look back at.
[00:12:33] Days and weeks and months and years and go, wow, I was just so stressed out then. Or, , was I acting outta fear, outta shame, or was I hiding or was I, and, we can look back at those moments and wish we could perhaps do it differently , or do it again. And, and that completely gets rid of all of that.
[00:12:54] Which is a really nice place to move forwards with and, and really important when we want to find [00:13:00] flow because in those moments we are in, we have that internal alignment and that beckons flow. To, to appear. And if, we're not in that place, we're otherwise fractured, you know, we're moving from that neck.
[00:13:16] Entropy to entropy. We're moving to chaos in the consciousness. You know, there's a, I guess a more metaphysical philosophical theory that our mind is either moving in the direction of chaos or moving in the direction of cohesion, AK entropy and leg entropy, and so it allows us to. To stay steady in that more cohesive Negan tropic place and allow, allow flow to occur.
[00:13:50] Kev: Define in Tropic and Negan tropic. For people that might not be familiar with these terminologies.[00:14:00]
[00:14:00] Cameron: So it's really a term coined by. Metaphysics and used by Chick sent Mihai and other psychological philosophers to talk about how information within our consciousness may be behaving. And entropy is this idea of chaos, things moving in random, disparate ways, and entropy is the opposite. Things moving towards one end in harmony, in alignment.
[00:14:31] And the theory is that when. The contents of our consciousness is aligned moving towards one end, which is why goals are so important 'cause it COHEs our resources and attention towards one end. When we have that internal alignment, focus and harmony then flows possible. But if our mind is reacting to the, the [00:15:00] disparate.
[00:15:02] Chaos that's happening within it, we're continuously gonna be conflicted, distracted, and flow doesn't become possible.
[00:15:12] Kev: Hmm, when you were developing the study piece. made you realize it wasn't enough to just get your mind in the right place?
[00:15:27] Cameron: I think many experiences. I mean, my own personal experience in sport would be I would, I would get my I'D become ready, put on my flame mindset, prioritize it. And then it'd be the littlest things is suddenly watching a player walk on court with a brand new bag. And then I'd be like, oh, he's got the brand new equipment.
[00:15:50] He must be good. And as stupid, as stupid as it sounds, that then triggers a fear of competence and [00:16:00] thoughts and, and all the rest of it. And and then playing about with music, I'd be in a good space and then I'd play music that. Got me pumped, right? I'd listen to the Rocky soundtrack and, I'd find I'd get too pumped right before the event and actually get too aroused.
[00:16:20] And whilst I thought I was doing the right thing, my preparations weren't optimal. They weren't helping me peak. And, so all this varying activity that whilst I might have made a conscious decision to be ready. And changed my approach towards the challenge. There was all this distraction, even of my own making, such as the music I was listening to, and then working with clients, it becomes ever more obvious because I can see that they, they have the right approach because we've worked on it.
[00:16:51] Or for some people. There's this one Olympic, um, athlete I'm thinking of where they were just like so aligned with being ready, [00:17:00] like, I was learning of them and, and it, they were just philosophically completely in the right place. But distractions would pop up, be it someone they fancied, be it, a, a media camera that was there, whatever it was, they couldn't stay in that place.
[00:17:19] The importance, the need to keep that steadiness, keep hold of the reins of our consciousness towards where we want to heed became, very, very obvious. And then in trying to communicate how to find flow, it became very obvious that it would be an important part for many people.
[00:17:46] Kev: Tell us more about what changed for this specific athlete then if,
[00:17:55] Cameron: They were able to be more consistent, so whereas their performances [00:18:00] would be high and then low and high, and then low, and when the external variables were in the right place. Which was, you know, down to luck. They had the right philosophical approach and it all clicked. But when something wasn't quite right, be it equipment, be it people around them, be it whatever it was, their performances and their ability to find flow would suddenly.
[00:18:27] Falter. So there was this sort of up and down rollercoaster ride of, of performances and experiences. And then when they inserted these preparations to, to sustain that space until they were paddling, and then they could let go and just allow flow, suddenly their performances. Were consistently high and their experiences were consistently satisfying and their ability to find flow felt more, more attainable, more real, more consistent, more frequent.[00:19:00]
[00:19:01] Kev: Yeah. For most of our lives, we don't manage our consciousness. We just react. When does someone wake up to the fact that they actually have a choice here? That they have the ability to, that. Does it need a trigger or do we need some sort of awareness that needs to sleep in?
[00:19:37] Cameron: Yeah, it's a good question. Ultimately, I believe we're experiential beings and for there to be wisdom, not just knowledge, right? So for there to be information that isn't just a logical thread that makes sense, but rather a lived. Embodied pattern of thinking or behavior that [00:20:00] we've ex that comes from experiencing something and the embodied mind, the psyche absorbing it, and then, using it becomes part of us, becomes part of our, our wisdom of the sum of our lived experience on this planet are inner intelligence, if you like.
[00:20:23] Often for people need that experiential win or that experience for something either bad to happen for then for us to go, hang on, I don't want that. How do I change that? Or for something great to happen in which we have managed our preparations, and then it's clearly worked, and then they're like, oh, wow, that was great. So I think, you know, it depends on how people create that experience, and as to when that, when we allow that, that penny to [00:21:00] drop, you know, but certainly we can curate it. We don't need to, have a huge aha moment. We can be very aware that, you know, for example, if I.
[00:21:13] I mean, we could, there's 1,000,001 examples we can use, but if I go and have a cold shower right now, I can just walk in and my experience is probably gonna be, Ooh, ooh, tight, hold it. But if I take 10 deep breaths, find a, a level of internal harmony where I can be at ease with oncoming friction and oncoming cold and oncoming conflict, then I'm gonna have a richer experience.
[00:21:39] Right. And my performance per se is probably gonna be less gasping. So we can sort of create experiences such as that, you know, we can go shoot three throws on the basketball, we can go throw darts at the board or take tea bags and throw them into coffee cups to create any challenge for ourselves.
[00:21:58] And [00:22:00] when we practice integrating flow into the preparations, we can see very quickly that the experience. It's better, the performance is better and, the aha moment of, ah, okay, I do have a choice here. I can manage my consciousness, you know, is really, is really becomes really, really interesting.
[00:22:20] Kev: What's happening when someone's consciousness is not managed by them, but the nervous system is taking over.
[00:22:34] Cameron: We become very sensitive to the outside world. Yeah. And. Part of that sympathetic activation is our, our senses can get heightened. And so we become very sensitive to all the distractions and we, I guess, stop focusing on what our intention is or where we want to go and, and what we want to be doing, and when that suddenly, [00:23:00] when you know, that equals more uncertainty, more chaos externally, and as a result.
[00:23:07] Our thinking brain, our explicit cognition takes the reins thinking, oh, I need to solve, I need to feel more in control here. I need to feel safer. And we start to overthink and, and then our left amygdala will start to fire. And, and, and sympathetic service, nervous systems, spikes even more. And, and all that beautiful cortico muscular coherence that we have in flow, all that beautiful harmony and that, um.
[00:23:37] Parasympathetic modulation of our sympathetic nervous system where our sort of psyche and relaxed system manages the arousal to a really helpful, helpful level disappears. And in that sense, our sort of biology is reacting. And just as we would a stress response and we go into a sort of a mild or, or [00:24:00] extreme, depending on the situation, sort of fight, flight, freeze, fa or flop responses where we can also not feel in control of our physiology as our heart starts to beat and we start to sweat and start to become twitchy or tight or strained.
[00:24:16] And, um. And then we're, you know, we're deep in the red. So, obviously I think we talked a little bit earlier around this idea of embodied cognition where the mind and and body are inseparable and there's a physiological consequence to the psychology.
[00:24:35] Kev: Yeah, you mentioned flight, fight, freeze. Those are the three that I hear most often. What goes more?
[00:24:45] Cameron: Fight, flight, freeze, fawn and flop.
[00:24:48] Kev: FA and Flop. Flop. I have never heard fa, I just recently heard about, take us through
[00:24:54] Cameron: FA is sort of people pleasing. We go into that sort of appeasement, that [00:25:00] placating that, um, I'm, you know, I'm not the situation or you are more worthy than me. And, and we, distance ourself. We avoid and run away by placating. And then that flop is where we feel like we might lose control of the.
[00:25:16] Of the body, um, such as we just feel like fatigued all of a sudden. Or in a physical sport or not even a physical sport. You go up to someone you fancy and suddenly your legs feel all loose and wobbly and, and you just feel like your, your body goes into this sort of flop. And psychologically we go into a bit of a
[00:25:36] downward spiral.
[00:25:38] Kev: Hmm. So people pleasing might be a, uh, a part of this response that we have when we are faced with something that's threatening is, is that fair to say?
[00:25:53] Cameron: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:55] Kev: Interesting. [00:26:00] In the book you write that the mind will naturally project to future events, most often self-determining suboptimal experiences. Why do our minds do this?
[00:26:17] Cameron: Because we want to feel in control. We want to. Uh, you know, that inner workings of generative development in the sense that we want to survive, we want to become better beings so we can better survive. We want to advance, innate in all of us. We want to, at some stage be better, not necessarily from a moral
[00:26:40] standpoint or compass, but more from a, an evolutionary one. And so in order to do that, we need and want to feel in control of the situation so we can better act, better, think better, navigate the situation better, meet our agendas, and meet our needs. And so the [00:27:00] mind, is naturally projecting.
[00:27:02] Predicting and every time we, we predict the future to understand how to act. In the present, we project and every time we project, we create an experience around that projection. And more often than not, those projections are not ones of flow or optimal functioning. They're ones of tightness, fear, nerves or, you know, you just think about.
[00:27:28] An upcoming event that's very important to you and just reflect on what that experience around that projection actually is. And so it is a very natural, very normal way of operating. You know, our biology is hardwired to predict and, often we, we overthink it by taking into account the nerves that we might feel that speeds up the number of times we're gonna predict and project.
[00:27:57] Then transfers that feeling [00:28:00] into the future event. And so we then project a nervous experience or project a self-conscious experience or whatever it is. So it's a very natural mode , but it's one that, unfortunately works against us most of the time because of our overactive mind. You know, our mind is continuously trying to.
[00:28:25] Get ahead. But in taking the reins, it overthinks overcomplicates the situation, and as I said, brings in inferred feelings that don't need to be in the future, into the situation.
[00:28:41] Kev: It feels to me that. Part of this sometimes happens automatic. Um, some projections are a reactive response to whatever is going on in life. Well, what do we do with this?
[00:28:59] Cameron: [00:29:00] We use it to our advantage. I mean, if we are just catching a ball, for example, our mind's gonna be predicting. You know, the trajectory of the ball is gonna be predicting the environmental variables in order to know where to place our hands and where to catch the ball. So there's lots and lots of predictions that's happening to bring a coffee cup up to our mouth.
[00:29:23] We are predicting, lots of predictions in that process. So there's all these predictions that are happening all the time. You know, our brain is just like it. It would be impossible to not do that. However, what we can do is use it to our advantage, use it as an asset and use it to insert flow and use it to train our mind and body to feel in flow, to think and flow, to have that future experience of flow, to have that future projection flow.
[00:29:55] So then when we get to those experiences as we would bringing a [00:30:00] cup of coffee to our mouth, we do it effortlessly and seamlessly. When we project how to catch those car keys that are suddenly throwed to us across the room, there's often not time to think about not catching them. There's just like, oh, and we've caught it, but our mind will instantly project to where it might be, and then we deliver that action and similarly bringing the coffee cup, I might be in such a relaxed, secure state.
[00:30:31] That bringing this coffee cup or cup of coconut water up to my mouth is just easy and And there's effortlessness. There's faultlessness there. But if suddenly I'm sitting across someone who I'm nervous about or, I have an internal conflict and I'm sure we've all been there trying to drink a hot cup and we're feeling nervous and we're trying to study the cup to not spill it and have a drink, suddenly it all becomes difficult and [00:31:00] clunky and horrible.
[00:31:00] So that premise, we can, we already do, but it's just consciously utilizing that predictive processing to our advantage.
[00:31:14] Kev: If you were to do a thought experiment, because we've talked about okay, creating an optimal. Experience and the way that we're projecting, and we've also talked about what, what kind of happens when it goes wrong. Let's make a thought experiment out of okay, things go wrong. What's going on there and what do we actually do to apply steady to this?
[00:31:46] Cameron: We proactively, what I call build a flow blueprint. So we take the time out to visualize a feature event in flow. And [00:32:00] we can build an in-depth flow blueprint. And depending on the importance or the, the degree of negativity of those projections, we can do a deep dive into this and do a deep meditations, almost self hypnotic intervention and have it very experiential, very sensational.
[00:32:22] So for example, with athletes like. Olympian skiers that I've worked with, we've had them in their hotel room with their equipment, with their skis on, with all their gear on, with a fan in their face to mimic the wind squatting as if they're skiing, but visualizing to make it feel super real and super immersive, and so that they can really build that blueprint of them in flow.
[00:32:54] Before they actually do that race. So then when they get to the race, the brain goes, oh yeah, I, I know what to do here. I've done this [00:33:00] already.
[00:33:00] Kev: Hmm.
[00:33:01] Cameron: And then leading up to the race, the emotional turbulence isn't as as much because there's that seed feeling of, I've got this, I'm gonna react and flow. No problem.
[00:33:13] So there's less distraction, less conflict leading up to the race. And then what we do with that blueprint is we take a snapshot of it. An image, two second movie, something short, bright, that really signifies that whole blueprint. And then every time the mind projects, which it will hundreds of times before an important event, we insert the snapshot.
[00:33:34] Insert the snapshot into our mind, bring it front and center, remind our neurology how to feel, how to be and associate this idea and feeling of being in flow. With that feature event. And the more we create those associations, the more it becomes a, a likely scenario to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. So in creating those [00:34:00] flow blueprints, we can do that for, um, walking into work every day.
[00:34:05] We can do that for important meetings. We can do that for a conversation, we can do it for a sporting event or whatever it is. You know, we, we have the opportunity. To manage that process, steady our minds create content within our consciousness that will lead us towards flow, or we can choose to what I call be experientially negligent, which is to ignore our experience, right?
[00:34:35] Instead of being experientially intelligent and competent, and being aware that our experience is super powerful. We can, um, you know, we have a choice to either pick up that, use that intelligence to our advantage or, or be negligence and, and play the lottery and see, and see what, uh, what [00:35:00] experiential rollercoaster, awaits.
[00:35:04] Kev: Yeah. Okay. So the blueprint and the exercises in this scenarios mentioned these are very much, if you have time in advance and you have a very um. Specific scenario that kind of goes the way, right? Let's imagine the example that you set before, okay, you're at your tennis match and now this person comes in with a new bag and it was something that you didn't project that didn't really fit the blueprint.
[00:35:38] Um, now your brain takes over. You're starting to think of all these negative thoughts and you're starting to project again, the non flow mindset specific. So what do we do there? How do we intervene? How do we get out of there and come back to it?
[00:35:57] Cameron: The quickest one is to insert the snapshot. [00:36:00] You know, remind ourselves why we're here and all the feelings that we're about to feel when we in that scenario, step on the court and play tennis. And that might bring us back, you know, alternatively we can, with trial and error, we can create rituals that it might be a sequence of music, it might be a, a thought, you know, I often have one of
[00:36:25] laughing with my children, laughing with my children puts me in such a good place of, the reason why I do things, the the feeling that I want to generate inside myself. So if I, if my consciousness is being hijacked, I can just think of a moment where I'm just giggling with them or they're doing something silly and that then brings my heart rate to a place I want.
[00:36:48] It brings my mind to a place I wants it, and then I can. In, you know, reengage with what, what's happening. And, you know, there's many, many tools that I lay out in the book. And [00:37:00] from resetting our psychophysiology to managing our thoughts, to choosing feelings, to trigger an engineer, to, lots of ways to power up our presence and use our senses to our advantage so we can.
[00:37:21] Get out of that thinking brain. That's often been the cause of us being hijacked and back into a more sensory or experiential experience, so it really, depends on what the activity is and, the state that we want to put ourselves in prior. You know, if I'm hours before an important event, I'm gonna want to be super relaxed.
[00:37:45] But if I'm minutes before an important event, I'm gonna want to be somewhat aroused and excited and fired up, ? So we might use different tools to create different feelings and thoughts [00:38:00] and points of focus.
[00:38:06] Kev: Yeah, there's, there's something that you said that really sparked my interest that I think would be good to leave the listener with. Um. The deliverance to catch yourself in that moment. When things are going to insert the emotions at the right place. So there's some sort of essence of self knowledge that you're developing as you're going through.
[00:38:35] Steady in a way, right? You're creating something deliberately to project, but also you're starting to understand what might go wrong for you and how to change your experience of becoming more intelligent in the moment.
[00:38:52] Cameron: Yeah, absolutely. And well put, and there's an underlying theme there. Within this phase of the book and the whole book as [00:39:00] a whole of this idea of becoming more experientially intelligent and to sum up this episode that this study is, gives us the practical tools and the rituals for us to actually apply that experiential intelligence into experiential competence.
[00:39:20]
