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WTF?!? 😳
17 Plays1 month ago
Flow states? Psychic moments? Madness? Oh boy...
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Life's F Nuts'
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome friends to another episode of Life's F Nuts.
00:00:13
Speaker
I'm your host, JR. Coming at you live from Berkeley, California. Life's effing nuts. One man's stories and ruminations of being human in an upside down world.
00:00:26
Speaker
How about that? Life's effing nuts. Sure is, huh? Sure is. Sure is, my friends. Life is effing nuts. Sure is, my friends. It is effing nuts.
00:00:40
Speaker
Life's effing nuts. The nuttiest, man. The nuttiest of the nuttiest.
00:00:50
Speaker
It's Friday afternoon.
00:00:54
Speaker
A sunny day here in Berkeley, California.
00:01:00
Speaker
I appreciate that sunshine. It's been gray and dreary throughout almost all of July. Just gray and dreary.
00:01:12
Speaker
Nothing but gray and dreariness.
Embracing Experimental Creativity
00:01:19
Speaker
So this is my 10th episode for season four of Life's F and Nuts. It's been a very experimental season, as you know.
00:01:30
Speaker
My hypothesis or my...
00:01:35
Speaker
i don't know what the word is.
00:01:40
Speaker
and I don't know what the word is, but the what i I came into the season...
00:01:45
Speaker
the The thing that I wanted to experiment with, as you know, is not looking at metrics at all, not promoting at all, just focusing on the the art for the art's sake. and i don't know if this is art, but whatever. The expression for the expression's sake, the improvisational nature of the show, and just to see if that liberated me creatively, artistically.
00:02:14
Speaker
to just let go of expectations in terms of if it's being received, how it's being received.
The Liberation from Metrics
00:02:24
Speaker
Because I realized that as I've shared with you guys, that I was pretty kind of obsessed with if it was being received.
00:02:37
Speaker
And i would I would come up with all kinds of conclusions based on how well I thought it was either being received or not being received. You know, if it wasn't being received, if a certain episode didn't have a lot of plays, i was like, oh, no
00:02:53
Speaker
It means that I'm not good at this. means this, it means that. And, you know, I can get pretty in my head from that process. So anyway, just wanted to try to liberate myself from that. And I've, you know have not checked the numbers at all.
00:03:09
Speaker
And I've had fun doing this. I have felt more liberated. I don't know if that if that equals, if that leads to better quality product.
00:03:21
Speaker
But as far as my subjective experience and and the freedom and joy I feel doing this, I definitely think it's increased. There's something that does feel good
00:03:33
Speaker
about creating from a place with no expectation. I'm going to repeat that for the folks in the back. Creating from a place of no expectation.
00:03:44
Speaker
Creating from a place of no expectation. oh God, I didn't... I actually can sing a little bit. i don't know why when I've tried to sing on these... on these little shows that I can't hit the freaking notes.
00:03:58
Speaker
Creating from a place of no, no, no, no expectations.
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:04:06
Speaker
Expectations.
00:04:08
Speaker
Expectations.
00:04:15
Speaker
I will say I'm not sure, even though I've enjoyed I'm not sure if all... Continue on immediately with more episodes. And I do have a request for you if you're if if there's anyone out there listening.
00:04:30
Speaker
If you have enjoyed it, shoot me an email. life's effing nuts podcast at gmail.com so l-i-f-e-s life's effing f-i-n nuts n-u-t-s podcast p-o-d-c-a-s-t at gmail.com and just let me know i mean i might Even if I get zero emails, I might just continue to do this because I enjoy it. But if I do get a few emails saying, hey, appreciated that or keep you're on to something, just keep working at it, um that will definitely weigh into my decision if i on whether I decide to continue with the episodes or not, at least for now.
00:05:17
Speaker
So there's that.
00:05:20
Speaker
And then what I want to talk about today
00:05:25
Speaker
is energy energy energy Sunday Sunday Sunday don't know I don't know why I channeled my that like promotional voice when they do like the monster truck this Sunday at Alameda Fairgrounds monster truck Sunday Sunday Sunday guys have heard those So absurd.
00:05:54
Speaker
So absurd. But there's something fun about that voice.
Exploring Flow States
00:05:57
Speaker
Energy. There was a little moment that happened to me. I know i think it was, i don't know, last episode or the episode before where I talked about pedicabbing, that I've done a few bike taxi shifts recently and really enjoyed it.
00:06:17
Speaker
And i i think I alluded to this in one in the in that episode where I just talked about how it was a Sunday and I was just in such a good flow and I was explicitly practicing gratitude and positivity and it was And i got like psychologically, I got into a really good place where just energy was just flowing, man, flowing.
00:06:42
Speaker
And guess a lot of people talk about flow states. That's like a thing.
00:06:50
Speaker
And i I've always loved flow states. i think it's like one of the most gratifying things in the world to be in a flow state. Have you all been in a flow state before? Just complete flow.
00:07:04
Speaker
where you're just fully immersed, fully engaged in the activity in the moment.
00:07:13
Speaker
the All the psychological gears, all the systems within your body are fully lubricated and functioning, no friction. Your mind is crystal clear.
00:07:25
Speaker
You're not bogged down by worries, fears, anxieties, self-consciousness.
00:07:32
Speaker
You all been in those states? Pretty fun. pretty fun to be in a flow state. And <unk>ve I've always been fascinated in those flow states, how things can unfold.
00:07:49
Speaker
And sometimes it feels like magical the way things can unfold in those flow states. Like everything starts to just, it feels like this at least. It's not an objective assessment, obviously. I don't haven't done studies on him I'm sure there are studies in terms of what happens in a flow state and
00:08:08
Speaker
if there's any causality between flow states and outcomes. Because sometimes it feels like when I'm in a flow state
00:08:17
Speaker
that everything just starts to break in my favor. And even, you know, you think about sports and and you know baseball teams in particular,
00:08:29
Speaker
they talk about like when a team is hot, when they got that that that verve, that swag, that energy, that flow,
00:08:40
Speaker
that you just you start getting lucky breaks. like Things just start things start breaking in your favor.
00:08:49
Speaker
you know Short little balls that two weeks ago would have been caught are all of a sudden finding like little spots between that infielders and the outfielders and drops for a hit.
00:09:01
Speaker
you know Things just start break breaking in your favor. like That does seem like a phenomenon that when when you got the mojo, the energy, the momentum,
00:09:10
Speaker
things just, yeah, it seems like that, but things just start to go well, like that, that it builds on itself.
Micro-obsession with Lamont Wade Jr.
00:09:20
Speaker
and
00:09:23
Speaker
back in episode two of this season, I talked about Lamont Wade Jr. who was my son and I's favorite, or let's, I don't, I don't know the proper grammar there. Um,
00:09:42
Speaker
Me and my son's? I don't know. Me and my son's favorite player, baseball player. And you know I've continued to follow his every game. he doesn't He's like a reserve player now. He doesn't play that often. and He probably plays every few days. And he just his fault he's continued it to really struggle badly. Like he almost never gets a hit. He's striking out all the time.
00:10:08
Speaker
It's just bad. like i don't It's like he fell off a cliff. It's really... feel feel bad for the guy who knows what happened psychologically, physically. just not the same player and it just it happened really quickly.
00:10:22
Speaker
um But yeah, it's like it's like i have this... like mike I called it in episode two like a micro-obsession.
00:10:33
Speaker
It's like, I don't know. I just like, I can't help but check his the box scores, plays for the angels, like just to see like, did he do well? And then it's like, yeah, it's, I mean, it's so, like I said, it's strange and insignificant.
00:10:48
Speaker
um Like I'll feel like, like a pang of sadness, like a physical pang of sadness when I see that he got no hits or whatever.
00:10:59
Speaker
and
00:11:02
Speaker
yeah and But that Sunday when I was pedicabbing and I was just in that crazy flow state where, as I shared before, no one else was getting rides.
00:11:16
Speaker
It was gray, dreary, bleak, windy. It felt like ah just like a dreary winter day out there on the Embarkandero in San Francisco. And I was just getting ride after ride after ride after ride. And and they were all just linking up seamlessly. I'd like get a ride and then wherever I dropped someone off, like right away someone would get into the cab and I'd take them somewhere and then right away someone to get into the cab. Like my timing was just impeccable, man.
00:11:45
Speaker
Flow state, flow state.
00:11:51
Speaker
and and i And like I said, I don't know what to make of that, but In that flow state, i think i stopped at one point to just drink some water, take take a couple minutes because I was tired, just like cycling around all all for all these hours.
00:12:09
Speaker
And I just checked the box score of the Angels game and the the Angels first baseman think his's like I don't know how to pronounce his last name, is but it's it seems like it's like Shanual or Scanual.
00:12:25
Speaker
um i guess in the first inning at his first at-bat, he got hit in the thumb or something with a pitch. And so Lamont Wade Jr., who was not playing that day, came in for him and to play first base.
00:12:38
Speaker
And Lamont had three hits, a walk, and a home run.
00:12:45
Speaker
And it was basically like the only game this entire season that he resembled the player that he used to be.
00:12:55
Speaker
And so to me, in my mind, I'm like, like is there causality here? Like is me being in this heightened flow state, this like elevated space of consciousness, is it?
00:13:10
Speaker
there somehow some correlation between that and Lamont having his only good season, of ah only good game of the whole season? And, you know, scientifically speaking,
00:13:23
Speaker
um it seems like, you know, obviously, no that that's not the case, that there's that's that's just like ah a psychological tick for me to even think that there could be some kind of causality or correlation.
Questioning Magical Thinking
00:13:40
Speaker
And, you know, I i generally and very wary of magical thinking. I don't like magical thinking. um I feel like it kind of can be kind of like an epidemic, especially where I live in the Bay Area. I've talked about this before. Like magical thinking can just be so prevalent and off-putting.
00:14:01
Speaker
And so I, you know, try to be, mindful i don't want to be a magical thinker but sometimes i can't help it i just wonder you know like just it's like is could it be that much of a coincidence that like me being in in this probably like and that the state that i was in that day i was like feeling as good as i'd felt in a long time like i was just it was just such a good was all my energy was just flowing there was no energy blocked up inside of me It was complete flow of energy.
00:14:33
Speaker
I felt, yeah, just complete flow of energy.
00:14:39
Speaker
And so i you know throughout my life, I've had little moments like that. And I've always kind of wondered, like, is there something to it? Like I remembered, I
00:14:52
Speaker
and i had a lot of this in my pedicabbing life, but I remember one in particular. This is years ago when I used to do pedicabbing full time. I was just having, ah it was another one of these just magical days where I would just, just the energy was flowing, man.
00:15:07
Speaker
And I was just nonstop rides all day long, just pedaling, sweating, sun, baking my skin into like a golden shade, people, connections, it's just so much energy, so much flow.
00:15:23
Speaker
And i'm I'm kind of, ah when I get into that state, especially when I was younger, it would be like it would be like a delirious euphoria A delirious euphoria. A delirious euphoria.
00:15:38
Speaker
Sometimes when I stumble upon a phrase that I like, it's fun to play with it the way I just did. A delirious euphoria. And i remember kind of late in the day on on this day years ago, I had three girls in the in the back or young ladies sitting And, you know, I was just, like i said, I was just in this complete flow state. And when I when i would get into those flow states,
00:16:07
Speaker
my kind of filter would dissolve And like whatever I was, like there was no separation between my linguistic creative impulses and the way that I was communicating with others.
00:16:22
Speaker
It's like normally my brain is very, very active. It's got a lot going on in there, but there's a buffer between me and the world. Like i it just kind of circulates within my brain. But back but or you know back in the day when I had pedicab, that buffer would go away and the full...
00:16:38
Speaker
full
00:16:41
Speaker
splendor of my my ah my juicy brain would just flow out. It would just be flowing. And I would just be like in this perpetual improvisational space and like and like free association. you know like I'm a very nonlinear expansive thinker.
00:17:01
Speaker
It's like my brain almost exists in like a dreamlike space that's not necessarily bound by logic or our linear linear sequences. And so from that space of expansiveness and like whatever, i just, I had this, whatever, this jolt of inspiration. I just turned around to the young ladies and I said, right, I'm going to, or to one of them. And I said, I'm going to guess what month you were born. And I like, again, like just delirious euphoria.
00:17:34
Speaker
And then they you know they got a kick out of it. They're like, okay, like let's do it. And so I just stared at this young lady, like stared her in the eyes. it's like we were so We were at a stoplight and were waiting for the stoplight and just stared at her.
00:17:45
Speaker
And as I was staring at her, I was like, the way I the way i describe it, I was like um
00:17:54
Speaker
turning the knob of a radio, trying to get a clear frequency. So I was like saying different months in my brain and just like seeing where the clear frequency was. And then finally I landed on one and I was like, i don't know. I don't remember what it was now, but whatever, like June.
00:18:10
Speaker
And she's like, whoa, how did you do that? And I was like, I don't know. And so that gave me even more energy. Like it made me even more delirious and euphoric.
00:18:21
Speaker
And so at the next red light, I turned to the second young lady and I said, all right, I'm to guess yours now. Let's do this. And I stared at her like deep into her soul, just staring like in a trance state.
00:18:34
Speaker
and And they're all just getting kick out of it. They're just laughing their heads off. They're what is going on? This is amazing. And so I did the same thing where I'm like tuning the radio dial.
00:18:45
Speaker
And was just like trying to find that frequency. And then I like landed on one, like whatever it was, like October, October. She's what? How did you do that?
00:18:55
Speaker
That's crazy. And then the energy gets even higher. And at that point, I kind of wanted to, I was kind i was kind of like, man, I should quit while I'm ahead. Like this is pretty impressive. I don't want to break the spell.
00:19:09
Speaker
um But we got to the next stoplight. I like, right, I'm going to the last one. Let's do this. did the exact same thing. Just stared at her deep into her soul, trance-like.
00:19:22
Speaker
And I just met these people, you know? It's kind of like a wild thing. But they they were loving it. They we were having a good old time. And so just stared her into her soul, did the little radio tuning thing, landed on and March or whatever it was. March. And she's like, oh my God, what happened?
00:19:37
Speaker
Just losing their minds. And...
A Pedicab Story of Synchronicity
00:19:41
Speaker
I was thinking about this story recently, i think partially because you know I've taken those few pedicab shifts recently and kind of remembering what that was like, that euphoric feeling, um that that flow state. And so I looked it up on ChatGPT to see
00:19:58
Speaker
um what the statistical probabilities are of me guessing those three because I never, I always knew that was kind of wild that I did that, but I never knew the actual thing So I'm actually looking right now on my little chat GPT thread.
00:20:13
Speaker
So I'm going to tell you what the, because I don't remember the number. So had a in 1,728 chance what did. 0.058% probability. One in 1,728.
00:20:23
Speaker
point zero five eight percent probability
00:20:30
Speaker
one in one thousand seven hundred twenty eight so You know, one could say just lucky guess. Lucky guess. um Nothing to it.
00:20:41
Speaker
You know, nothing magical here. But that's a pretty low percentage chance. That's like a pretty lucky guess or a pretty lucky series of guesses. And the fact that it wasn't just random. It wasn't just like I was in this kind of like random like, oh, ah maybe this, maybe that. Like I was...
00:21:02
Speaker
intent Intentionally trying to go through a process and like using a particular mechanism like I was trying to tune into something in this heightened state So I wonder about that kind of stuff can't help but wonder Can't help but wonder if that like intense flow state on Sunday or whatever that was, you know Two Sundays ago and Lamont Wade having the best game of his best game of his season who knows man Who knows, but I do get fascinated by that kind of stuff. And I've had a handful of those kinds of experiences throughout my life where the the synchronicity of things, my ability to guess things that I shouldn't know that would be like really, really, really low probability.
00:21:43
Speaker
um I'm just very high. And so who knows, man? I don't know. Fascinating.
Conclusion and Call for Emails
00:21:50
Speaker
Fascinating. Energy is fascinating. Flow states are fascinating. and unlocking um our whatever full capacities for full psychological spiritual emotional creative capacities fascinating stuff man fascinating stuff fascinating stuff yeah all right friends i've rambled on enough
00:22:19
Speaker
I guess that's it, man. Like I said, um if you have been enjoying these podcasts, life's effing nuts podcast at gmail.com. Shoot me an email.
00:22:31
Speaker
ah That will weigh into um or but that will whatever that will. um I will weigh that when I'm deciding if I want to do more episodes right away or take some time off or whatever.
00:22:43
Speaker
So appreciate you all.
00:22:49
Speaker
It's been real. Life's effing nuts. One man's stories and ruminations of being human an upside down world. I'm your host, J.R.