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EDWIN SMITH's avatar

Aah yes paralyses through analyses, the story of the frog and centipede? Every year the centipede wins the annual dancing competition and the frog quite resented that. So he pondered and pondered how to sabotage his performance and came up with an idea. Next time he saw the centipede he asked him." you know that double shuffle you do on the 87th foot and then twirl on the 76th and 17th feet is so amazing. how do you do it?" Well, come the night of the dance competition the poor centipede was so numb with paralyses trying to work it out in his head instead of just letting it flow, he couldnt do it and lost!

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Anthony 文武両道's avatar

Fantastic article as usual. I know that you have written extensively about flow states but I just want to emphasize again (for those not in the know) that getting comfortable in what many would consider an intense flow state is a great way to stop, well, stopping.

There are times when I spar where I know I will get seriously injured if I allow myself to stop. Staying locked in and not stopping gets me through. Being comfortable in that state is a survival mechanism.

Also, pushing yourself to the absolute edge of your endurance and focusing only at the task at hand is another way to keep locked in. I'll probably end up writing something myself in the near future about reducing the universe you inhabit to a single action but that's a story for another day.

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