What's The Big Idea: Justin Faerman and Jackie Knechtel: An Introduction To Flow Consciousness
“Flow consciousness is the space where life is conspiring in our favor”
Today’s guests: Justin Faerman and Jackie Knechtel
Their big idea: Flow consciousness is a skillset that often seems at ends with societal norms but actually leads to exponential growth and bring us towards our greatest contribution.
Jackie Knechtel, M.A., is an executive coach/consultant, behavioral therapist, international speaker and pioneer in the area of flow. She is the co-founder of the Flow Consciousness Institute which holds cutting edge trainings, retreats, leads workshops and delivers transformational experiences worldwide. Jackie is also the co-author of the forthcoming book Flow: The Art of Effortless Living and is actively shifting consciousness on a global scale through her speaking, coaching practice and by blending science and spirituality into practical tools for living an enlightened life. Jackie has a background as an autism specialist with clients in NYC, Beverly Hills, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. She serves as an advisor for the Eve Branson Foundation, NomadX and AutismCodes and is currently working to revolutionize the therapy delivery model for special needs children and their caregivers with her vision, Spectra.
Justin Faerman is an international speaker, serial entrepreneur and consciousness researcher working to create large-scale shifts in human consciousness, integrate high-level intuitional skills more deeply into the business world and everyday life and deliver solutions-focused media to a global audience. He is the co-founder of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine and the Flow Consciousness Institute and a sought after teacher, known for his pioneering work in the area of flow and the mechanics of consciousness. He has a diverse entrepreneurial background that includes pioneering exponential growth at green tech companies and building some of the world’s top conscious media publishing platforms and he currently serves as an advisor to a number of social-impact driven growth stage companies and is actively involved in multiple large-scale projects to re-imagine and re-engineer human sociocultural systems to create a sustainable, enlightened future for all life.
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Key insights Shared:
Flow state: What people are more commonly familiar with - The temporary ephemeral state where you're experiencing temporary expanded creativity and foc, time seems to stop, a non-ordinary state of peak performance.
Flow consciousness is Closer to your true being, your essence and pure potential. Where life is conspiring to our favor. A stage of psycho-spiritual development.
Flow consciousness first, flow state second.
Surfing as an introduction to flow - a shift from the analytical and practical mindset. Surfing is all feeling, you don’t necessarily need to communicate with anyone.
Mental physics: Different from neuroscience and an important part of flow consciousness. Mapping how the psyche works, picking up where Jung left off. Mapping intuition.
Age of intuition: Intuition is actually a type of advance processing that we have access to that allows us to truly become infinite. This quantum multidimensional faculty of our mind has been formally described as our unconscious mind. A bridge between the physical world and the ephemeral.
An innate, inborn mechanism to read subtle energy. Our society is trained to make decisions based on logic but we typically have blinders put on by society.
Intuition is really helping integrating the heart and the mind
Why would you use intuition over basic logic?: Our rational, logical mind can only process around 6,000 “bits” of information per second. Our intuition can process 6.5 billion bits per second.
With your rational brain you’re basically looking at 1% of the map. But with intuition you’re looking at 99.999% of the map.
If we’re experiencing an emotion as we’re tapping into this decision making it means we’re attaching a story or a meaning to a sensation we’re having in our body.
The more you heal trauma imprints, the easier it is to access “pure sensation” and allow this to be processed by your intuition.
The journey to mastering intuition is like going from a high school athlete to becoming an olympic medalist. It's a journey of development.
Step 1: The number 1 key thing is to begin training yourself to stop restoring from strictly rational thinking to relying more on emotional cues.
How do you know you’re having an emotional response? There’s almost always a physical sensation.
This is known as your Intuitional signature.
Step 2: Start to use this faculty as the main way that you orient reality.
“Millionaires don’t use intuition but billionaires do”
Intuition is one of the critical tools involved in maintaining flow consciousness, its constantly dancing with what life brings to you.
Framework for understanding thoughts, decisions and their results referred to as BETDAR: Beliefs, emotions, thoughts, decisions, actions and results.
We all have hundreds of these core beliefs that put blinders on what we think is possible. If we hold onto unresolved emotional patterns, beliefs and emotions will actually get in the way of seeing beyond what we think is possible.
What are the most common beliefs that are inhibiting people and holding them back from full potential?: “I can’t trust myself,” ‘I’m not good enough,” “I have to work hard to be successful,” “I don’t deserve love” “life is hard” - so many boil down to the more core inhibiting beliefs which include I’m unlovable or I’m separated and don’t belong.
What is the process of unpacking these inhibiting beliefs?: the first thing you want to do is drill down to what’s under the surface level of the belief. Identify these limiting beliefs and ask yourself these mindful questions:
What am I making this belief “mean” about myself?
What must I think is true in order to have this thought or experience?
Why am I thinking this? Why am I having this thought?
Identify what is the opposite of these limiting beliefs, often the exact opposite of these beliefs is actually a flow enhancing belief.
Take action regarding this new belief. Go and perform some action that enforces this new belief especially if it’s exciting or inspiring to you. It actually helps your brain enter a high neuroplasticity state because when your brain experiences something novel it is more capable and active to develop new structures.
When you are taking on this new belief, it’s important to look for evidence supporting this belief. If an inhibiting belief is “i’m unlikable” and you begin supporting a healthier, more flow oriented belief like “I’m actually charismatic and people enjoy my company '' take time to recognize when events or actions actually reinforce your new belief.
Don’t let perceived external circumstances dictate what is possible for you.
We don’t value things that we can’t put a price tag on, and this type of thinking goes against our intuition. It’s a radical step to follow your intuition because you’re often going against what has been deemed culturally acceptable.
Practices to orient in the present moment to target flow consciousness: Looking for the silver lining, an idea that comes from buddhist philosophy and zen teachings driving from radical acceptance. How you interpret things will determine what your emotional reaction is to it. If you perceive something as potentially for the “highest good” you reframe everything to consider possibility and flow.
Radical acceptance means accepting what is. This is real, there is real pain. You can acknowledge that, and respond but not “reacting.” The worst decisions are made from fear and panic. It serves you best to look at what’s going on and layer on the practice of radical acceptance, whether that means for your own personal growth or the ability to help others.